In woods of God-realization vol.7

In Woods of
GOD-REALIZATION

OR

The Complete Work^ of Swami RAMA TIRTHA

5351

VOLUME VII

INDIA-THE MOTHERLAND

Seventh, Edition

Copies 2000 ] . 1951 1 Prioeils. 2/4/

- UNSH! RAM MANOHAR LAL

a 800 K.SeLt£«

MM

S*R*<. Of I- H’ «.

PUBLISHCD DT

The Rama Tirtba Pratistban
{The Rama Triiha Publication League)
LUCKNOW (India)

‘ .

ACO. ■. .

../V^'.’S^ /

PRINTED AT

Vedanta Printing Press^
25 Marwari Gali
LUCKNOW

<

PREFACE

The Readers of Tn Woods of God-Reali¬
zation’ are aware of the fact hat the works of
Swami Rama Tirtha published' originally* in
four volumes were later on brOii^t out in
eight volumes in 1930. • • A

Lately a suggestion was placed before the
management that these volumes should , be of
uniform size as far as possible and some of
the lectures should he put under the appro¬
priate titles which each volume suggested. Some
matter which was not already published in
these volumes had also to be brought out.

The Rama Tirtha Pratishthan, therefore,
evolved a scheme early in 1947 to publish the
complete works of Swami Rama Tirtha Tn
Woods of God-Realization’, in !2 volumes as
follows:—

(1) The Pole Star Within

(2) The Fouataio of Power

(3) Aids to Realization

(4) Cosmic Consciousness and How to
Realize it

11

(5) The Spirit of Realization

(6) Sight seeing from the hill of Vedanta

(7) India—the motherland

(8) Forest talks

(9) Mathematics and Vedanta

(10) Snapshots

(11) Precious gems

(12) Musings of the Poet-Monk.

Now this volume is published under the
new scheme while other volumes are in the
course of publication likewise. How the
lectures have been redistributed would be mani¬
fest from a perusal of the full scheme.

I hope the blessed readers will appreciate
our effort in this direction.

RAMESHWAR SAHAI SINHA ,

M. L.

Hony. Secretary.

I

CONTENTS

Appreciatioa

1.

National Anthem

Page

I

2.

Sayings about India

2

3.

The Present Needs of India

15

4.

National Dharma

24

5.

The Problem of India

35

6.

The Future of India

61

7.

The Ancient Spiritualism of India

77

8.

The Civilized World's Spiritual

Debt to India

100

9.

Ad Appeal to Americans on

behalf of India

132

10,

Facts and Figures about India ....

200

ll.

India Worn anhood

207

12.

About Wifehood

210

13.

Wisdom vs. Knowledge

214

RAMA*S MESSAGE

Whether working through many souls or
alone, Rama serioasly promises to infuse true
life and dispel darkness and weakness from
India within ten years, and within the first
half of the twentieth century, India will be
restored to more than its original glory. Let
these words be recorded.1904

APPRECIATION*

BY

Mr. Puran Singh
{"Indian Febru^y, 1912)

From the heart of the people of this country
once did rise prayers breathing peace for the
whole*universe. It was when they were tired
-of war and conquest, it was when the warrior
race came home and saw that they had sold
their soul for a mess of pottage—earthly
empire. When the Aryan mind found that
the battles won were really the battles ,lost, it
turned inward. The Spirit of renunciation
completely vanquished the spirit qf conquest
in them. Peace and Love spread over the land
and made it the holy land of the neighbouring
races. From that time on, that page of Indian
history has been considered blank where the
life of renunciation is absent. In India, the
ideal is not to measure success by the amount
of gold one can manage to accumulate, nor
even by the amount of knowledge one toils to

n ] JN WOODS OP C0D-HEALI2ATI0N

Store, nor by ranV, nor by position, but only
by the amount of self-knowledge and self¬
culture. Man is to be judged not by his outer
circumstances but by his inner experiences. It
is inner man only (hat is held worshipful. The
silent inner life of the sage, though by no
means eventful to outward seeming, reflected
as it is from moment to moment in a smiling,
profile, kind .look, generous heart and tranquil
mind is, in fact, the only true life whose evolu¬
tion mankind ought lo study. . The story of
such a life would consist in recounting the
inner experiences of (be saint in the form of
his thoughts and teachings still more in depict¬
ing the saint himself with his mystery-opening
smiles and glances. Swam I Ramans biography
is that of the inner man. It is but the silent
evolution of his mind, emerging from (he world
of matter by slow processes of self-realization
and entering into the domain of spirit.

Swami Rama's life is a rural hymn set in
the tunes of the prairie and the Jungle, singing
of universal peace and love. It is the same
note that had its birth in the glorious
Upanishads. Nothing new about it but the

APPRFCJATION

f iii

singing of U, Swami Rama raised it once again
from the bottom of his soul and he poured it
forth in savage cries calling man from discord
to harmony, from difference to agreement,
in-dilferencc, from self to self-in-all, from*
diversify to unity-in-diversily. He called man
away from hatred to love, from war to peace.
From him did flow good will to all and charity
of thought and feeling. He was a poet of the
inner man and the inner nature. To him all
men and things were divine. ^^Tnivamasr--
■' Thou art That, ** - Eknmevadsviiiyam
"One without a Second.” these two mantrams
may be said to be the two golden wings,
balanced on which this ethereal Hansa soared
every hour of his life into the eternal blue
and soaring ever soared further and further
till he was lost ia Infinity.

Swami Rama was born in 1873 at
Muraliwala, a small village in the District of
Gujranwala, Punjab. He was born in a poor
Brahman family. It is said»Goswami Brahmans
of Murliwala are tbe direct descendants of
Goswami Tulsi Das, the famous author of
the Hindi Ramayan. His father Goswami

IV J IN WOODS OF GOD-REALIZATION

Hininanda had no means of livelihood except
what the spiritual tours undertaken by him to
Peshawar and Swai brought him, He was the
family Guru of the Hindus of the North-
Western Frontier Province, GoswamiHirananda
had to go to his disciples on ministering tours
from time to time. SwamlRama’s mother died
a few days after his birth. He was brought up
on cow’s milk, It may be remarked here that
though a :Punjabee> Swami Rama's staple diet
was milk and rice. He was very fond of milk
and he could drink about 5 seers of it at a
time. Swami Rama was thus born under the
lowly roof of a poor Brahman family. He
became a student at the age of five. His child¬
hood and boyhood were passed in hard study.
As he reached the higher classes, his father
was not able to support him, and as a student
he lived in extreme poverty. The dress of the
boy Rama consisted of a shirt, a pair of
Puojabee trousers and a small turban, each
made of a cheap and very coarse country cloth,
the entire outfit costing about Rs, 3, His
fellow-students relate that at times, he would
forego his meals for the oil of his midnight lamp

APPRECfATKW

[V

in his College days. Many a time be bad to
starve for days together without, however,
showing the least signs of suffering or sorrow on
bis face, for he attended College regularly
with a calm and peaceful appearance and kept
to his studies as usual.

He had a soft handsome face of a typical
Aryan cut. The eye-brows arched over deep
black eyes, which showed the mystery and love
of his soul. In contrast with a big. broad,
prominent forehead, showing high intellectual
power, there was feminine softness round his
lips. When he was serious, the lower lip
pressed against the upper on a small round
chin, which betokened indomitable strength of
will. As a College boy, beseemed to give no
promise of his remarkable after-career, but
whosoever saw him even then, was impressed
with his angelic nature and with a purity and
innocence of life rarefy met with, He was
bashful like a modest girl. Living as he did in
the light of love, be looked transparently pure
through his small, frail, fair-coloured body. But
under this unassuming humble appearance there
lay hid a remarkable man with some lofty

Vi J IN WOODS OF C0D-REALI2AT(0N

aspirations and noble aims, which the Brahman
boy thought loo sacred to be uttered. With tears
in his .eyes, with the huiTjilily of a disciple in
his heart, with the silence of a maiden and
with the mil of a conqueror, this angelic
student wa$ toiling like a soldier day and night
in the temple of knowledge. Me was always
ahead of his fellows. His studies were vast.
The amount of knowledge and information on
literary and philosophic subjects that he
commanded as a Swami was marvellous- It
seemed as if he was acquainted with the whole
range of hurtiAn thought

At the age of about twenty, he became
M. A., in Mathematics. After that, for four
years he served in different capacities as a
Professor and a Lecturer. At the end of the
year 1899, after a year of his leaving Lahore
for the forests, h,e became a Sannyasin, The
marvellous store of his knowledge was thus
gathered by him in the short space of 26 years,
Every minute that passed him could not go
without paying toll to Swami Rama. Besides
passing the University Examinations with
great credit and securing high places and

APPHECtATlON

[ vii

scholarships, he had becoms at home with the
wricings of Hafiz, Mdulaoa Room, Magrabi,
Umar Khyam and other Sufi masters of Persia.
He had waded through the whole literature of
Philosophy both Eastern and Western. He
had finished many readings of Upanishads in
his College days. He was enamoured of the
beauties and sweetness of Hindi, Urdu and
Punjabee poets.

The rigour of circumstances and intense
work had toJd on his health. When he came
out as an M. A,, everybody wondered how
could life suffer to remain linked to the
skeleton of a body which he carried about.
There was hardly any flesh on his bones. His
head rested on a thin, bony, crany neck. His
voice was then hoarse and he could hardly
speak properly. So weak physically was he.
But he resolved then to have a strong body
by putting himself through a regular course of
physical exercise and overdoses of milk, be
.within a short time, recovered his health. He
delighted in designing new methods of physical
exercise. Ever since then, he could never
forego his daily exercise. He was seen, even

viii ] IN WOODS OF Oor>-REAUZ\TION

a few minutes before his death, taking as was
his wont» his physical exercise. Thus out of a
thin, frail body, he managed to emerge a strong
man of stag-like nimble activity. He was a
great and swift walker. He could walk more
than 40 miles a day as a Swami in the
Himalayan hills. He won in America a 40
miles race, which he ran out of fun, in
competition with some American soldiers,
coming two hours ahead of the winner. Once
as he was walking fast in San Francisco streets,
he was accosted by an American with ibe
remark that he walked aa if the land belonged
to him. “Yes/' said Swami Rama smilingly
and walked away. He scaled Gangotri,
Jumnotri, and Badrinath peaks, clad in a small
strip of a loin cloth and a blanket. He crossed
from Jumnotri to Oangotri through glaciers.
He lived in snows, slept in caves in thick
dreary jungles all aJone. The mountain people,
whom the writer has met and talked with,
believed the Swami to be aDeva, so strong, that
he would ferry their cattle from the opposite
bank to this side of their village across a swift
hill torrent in the rainy season. At midnight.

j

APPRECIATtON

[ix

he would leave his Asana and go roaming in
the dark jungles defying death and fear.
Those that have seen him a$ a starving youth
of an extremely frail body when he was a
student at Lahore, could not possibly recognise
that wan white, emaciated face in this wild
man of the woods, so fearless, so bold, so
vehement, so strong and so roseate. His face
was now full, beautifully tinted, and his eyes
half closed with divine intoxication. With all
this exuberance of physical and spiritual
energy, Swami Rama presented to the world
the masterpiece of his life work, namely, his
personality.

Swami Ramans personality may be described
as explosive. He would remain silent for
months together as if he had nothing to say.
Re remained merged In joy. All of a sudden
he will burst out like a volcano and give out
his thoughts in a wild manner. Whenever be
spoke or wrote, one could be sure of getting
something very refreshing and original. It
seems he could not remain long in society
without feeling some kind of loss which
entailed weariness of soul to him. He used to

X ] IN WOODS OF GOD-REALIZATION

ruD back to the mountainous solitudes to recover
himself. There he would keep peace with
running waters, with glorious sky and would
lie on rocks foe hours together with his eyes
closed and his body thrown in the sunlight.

Swami Rama’s highly cultivated emotion
formed another attractive feature of his
personality. Deep sincerity rained down from
his eyes in such an abundance, His sweetness
was irresistible. Mohammedans and Hindus
love him alike. The people of different races
could see and recognise in this man, Swami
Rama some family likeness with themselves.
Americans called him an American, Japanese
called him a Japanese, Persians saw a Persian
in him.

To see Swami Rama was to feel inspired
with new ideals, new powers, new visions and
new emotions.

Another feature which contributed to the
charm of his very presence was his hold
independence of thought, his great towering
intellect. Whatever he taught he bad not
only thought upon, but he had actually seem
its working in his own;life. He used to say

APPRECIATION

[ XI '

that he believed in experimental religion.
According to him the art of living consists in
lumincuA belief. Theology has very little to do
with the inner religion of the living man. If
you are a living man, test the truth by
trusting your life to it. Just as in Science,
authority has little weight in arriving at Truth,
so in religion, authority should have little or no
weight and religious truth bearing on the
nature of inner man must be everybody’s own
and personal property through Self-realization.
Every one must go to God through the failures
and successes of his own life. Life itself is Ihe
greatest revelation.

Swami Rama, after spending two years in
the Himalyas, came down to the plains
burning with missionary zeal for scattering
the joy that he had found in himself. He
sailed for Japan from Calcutta in the year
1902. He was only for about a fortnight in
Japan. He was invited twice to speak to
Japanese Audience. A Christian paper of
Tokyo spoke in high terms about his
personality and announced him as’‘ the
“enthusiastic apostle of Vedanta.”

xii ) IN WOODS OF GOD-RBALIZATION

Oa meetiog Swami Rama for the first
time, Doctor Takakuthsu, Professor of Sanskrit
and Eastern Philosophy ia the Tokyo Imperial
University, said to the writer that though he
had roany an opportunity to see Indian Sadhus
and Pandits at Professor Max Muller's in
England and also at other places in Germany,
yet he had seen no man like Swami Rama.
He was the perfect embodiment of Vedanta
Philosophy. Mr. Kinza Hirai, the famous
professor of Tokyo, who was the eloquent repre¬
sentative of Buddhism in the Chicago Parliament
of Religions, was remiuded of the Buddhistic
period of Indian History, of which he had read
such vivid description in Japanese and Chinese
Scriptures, when he conversed with Swami
Rama. Mr. Hirai always remembered him
after he had gone away to America as the
“truly inspired Rama.*’

Swami Rama left Japan in November 1902,
for San Francisco. He was for about two
years in America, Most of this time, he lived
in solitude. There he lived a simple life,
carrying bis own fuel on bis head from the
forest. People of California were struck with

APPRECUTION

[ Xili

the indifference with which he treated the
euJogies on his work and life and threw
hundreds of newspaper cuttings into the
Sacramento river for its information. He made
a lasting impression on the Americans, but the
detailed account of his work in America cannot
be summed up here.

On his way back to India he visited Egypt
and lectured in one of the largest mosques
before a Mohammedan audience in Persian.

On return to his native home in the year
1905, he brought two ideas with him : (1) The
need of organization in every department and
activity of life and (2) the need for united work.
These two points he elaborated in a series
of Lectures given at different places in the
United Provinces.

One day while bathing in the Billing
Ganga near Tehri Garhwal, Swami Rama was
accidentally drowned in October, 1906. The
last thing that he had written on the day of bis
death, only a few minutes previous to the said
occurence, was in bis vernacular. Its substance
in English is, *‘Oh Death I Take away this body
if you will, I have many more bodies to live

xiv 1 IN WOODS OF GOD-REALIZATION

with. I can afford to live happily wearing the
silver threads of the moon and the .golden rays
of the Sua. I shall roam free singing in the
guise of hilly brooks and streams. 1 shall be
dancing happily in the waves of the sea. 1 aln
the graceful gait of the breeze and lam the
wind inebriated. These forms of mine arc
wandering forms of change. I came down from
the tops, knocked at doors, awakened the sleep¬
ing, consoled one^ wiped the tears of another,'
covered some, took off the veil of others, I
touch this and I touch (hat, 1 doff roy hat and
off I am. *lkeep nothing with me. Nobody
can find me.”

Thus, he clearly foreshadowed the end of
which perhaps he was unconcious. A great
man was thus taken away by the Ganges, and'
just when he was only thirty-three. He
intended to write a book on the Beauties of
Vedic Literature” and another one that he
was contemplating all these years, viz. 'The-
Dynamics of mind,” the books that now lie ip.
his soul.

INDIA, THE MOTHERLAND

NATIONAL ANTH€M

God bl€S5 our ancient Hind»

Ancient Hind, once glorious liind,

From Sagar Island to the Sind,

From Kashmir to Cape Comorin. '

May perfect peace e’er reign therm.

God bless our peaceful Hind I
I^t al) her sons In love unite
And make them do their duty aright.
Fill them with knowledge ev^r true •
And let their virtue shine anew, '

Your aid the country doth iroploce;

Give her a hearing, oh, once more.
National Spirit in her do pour,

Extend her fame from ahore to shore.
God bless once powerful Hind I
O Krishna of mighty d^ds untold,

0 Rama ever so brave and bold.
Forsake them not in evil days,
Unworthy ihoagh in many ways,

God bless our helpless Hind.

(Rama's Lover)

SAYINGS ABOUT INDIA

1

A person can nfver realize his unity with
God, the All, e»:cept when unity with the Whole
Nation ihrobi in every fibre of bis frame.

2

Let every son of India stand for the service
of the Whole, seeing that the whole of India is
embodied in evrry son.

3

One personal and local Dharraa must never
be placed higher than the National Dharma.
The keeping of right proportions only secures
felicity.

4

Doing anything to promote ihe well being of
the Nation is serving the cosmic powers, devas,
or gods.

5

To realize God, have the Sannyasa spirit,
entire renonciation of selHnterest, making the
little self absolutely at one with the great self
of Mother India.

SAYINOS ABOUT INDIA

3

6

To Realise God or BlisS) have ibe Brahman
spirit, dedicating yoar jnteJlect to thougts fcr
the advancement of the Nation.

7

To realize Bliss, yoa have to poseess> the
Kshaitriya spirit) readiness to lay down your
life for the country at every second.

8

T o realize God» you must have the true
Vaishya Spirit, holding your property only in
trust for the Nation.

9

But to realize Bliss and Rama, in that world
or this, and to give a living concretr objective
reaiiiy to your abstract subjective Dharma, you
have to work this Sannyasa Spirit, Brahman,
Ksbattria and Vaishya heroism^ through your
bands and feet in the manaal labour, onc;: rele'
gated to the holy Shudraa The Sannyasa spirit
must be wedded to rbe Pariah hands* This is
the only way today- Wake up ! Wake up ]

10

There Is but one remedy and one disease.
Nations can be cured and made free by the Life

A IN WOODS OF COI>REALI2AION

of Law, Individgals can be madesaints and
higher than gods by the same.

U

In renouncing the sense of possession, in adop¬
ting the spirit of Vedantic renunciation liea the
salvation of nations aa well as of individuals.
There is ho otlter way,

Tne myriad forces in.India have no resultant
pressure, being nullified by being pitched one
against the other. Is it not a pity 1 What is the
reason 1 Because each, patty concentrates its
aitencion on the faults of its neighbour.

U

O disrespectable iCespectability I There can
be no onion and love in a countryi so long as you
keep emphasizing each otlierU faults.

14

The secret of the succeasfu) art of living lies
in developing the mother’s heart to whom all her
children are lovely, whether big or babes.

15

Mother is the word which brings the deepest
feeling from fbe soul of a Hindu.

SAYINGS ABOUT INDU

5

16

Almost every town, stream, hill, Stone cr
animal is personified and sanctified in India. Is
it not hi^h time now to deify tbe entire mother
land, and let every partial manifLSUtion inspire
as with devotion to the whole ?

17

White, towering temples and stone Vishnos,
erected by you, will not allay the fever of your
heart,,. Worship, worship the hungry Narayanas
and the labouring Vi«hnu5 of the country,

16

Instead of wasting the precious ghee into the
mouth of artificial fire, why not offer even, bard
crusts of dry bread to the Gastric fire which is
eating up the flesh and bones of n^illions of scarv*
ing but living Naiayanas ?

19

The highest gift you can confer on a man is
to offer him knowlege, You may feed a man
today, he will be just as hungry tomorrow, teach
him an art and you enable him to earn bis Jiving
all his life.

20

Indian charity does not iroable itself so much

6

WOODS <X GOO-REAUZATION

about the stirving labouring classes {ShudrasX
but It takes the charitable donors straight to
heaven by feeding the oversatiated idlers, in the
Store Houses of God, the high representatives of
Religion Petrified.

21

The weik-minded Yatri who pays a pittance
to the persistent beggardrone may compliment
himself on having done something to save his
soul in the next world. Be it as it may, there is
not the least doubt that he has done something
to ruin the nation here now.

22

Half the population is dying of starvation,
the other half is buried under conspicuenis waste,
superfluous furniture, scent bottles, affectations,
galvanized manners, all sorts of precious trifles,
squalid riches and unhealthy show.

23

An aver?ge Indian home is typical of the
state of the whole nation, very slender means and
not only yearly multiplying mouths to feed but
slavishly to incur undue expenses in meaningless
and cruel ceremonies.

SAYINGS ABOUT INDIA

7

14

The Indian. Princes and rhe Indian Nobles,
having: lost all their precious jewels and power,
are left mere carpet knights with hollow rattlioj
titles aad vain empty names.

25

The greater mistake, made by the present
day Socialists, is that they envy the drop of sea-
spray possessed by the so-called wealthy, instead
of pitying their burden.

26

They raise practically no crops in England,
an 1 yet the C'luntry is rich? Why? Because
Indra, the God of hands, is fed althoagh to the
degree of indigestion on arts and industries*

27

The greatest cause of India's poverty is dis¬
carding the rubbish, dreading to touch the bones
of dead animals, and developing a kind of nose-
hygiene, sneering at all kinds of what they cal)
debris.

28

The downfall of India, the decline of India,
is explained by the Vedanta philosophy. It is
a matter of Koftna,

8

IN WOODS OF GOD-RSAUZATION

29

There are some for whom patriotism means
constant brooding over the vanished glories of
the past. Bankrupted bankers pouring over the
4 bng out-dated and credit books now useless* ,

30

Young . would-be Reformer! decry not the
ancient coatoms and spirituality of India, by
introdaciog a fresh element of discord, the Indian
people cinnot reach Unity.,

Abnegating, the little ego and having thus be¬
come whole of the country, fee) anything, your
country will feel with you j march, 'your country
will follow.

• 32 .

Service and love, and not mandates and com¬
pulsion, is the atmosphere for growth*

33

The man, is worthy of being a leader of
meHf will never, com plain of the stupidity of his
helpers, of the faithlesssiess of his followers, of
the ingratitude.of rr^okind, nor of* the non-appre¬
ciation of the public.

SAYINGS ABOUT INDIA

9

34

A country is strengthened not by great men
with small views, but by small men with great
views.

35

Perfect democracy, equality, throwing off the
load of external authority, casting aside the vain
accumulative spirit, throwing overboard ail prao-
gacives, the spurning of the airs of superiority and
shaking off the embarrassment inferiority, is
Vedanta on the material plain.

36

Let every man have equal liberty to find his
own level. Head as high as you please, but feet
always on the common ground, never upon any
body’s shoulders or neck, even though he be weak
or willing.

37

Paendo-pcliticians think of bringing about
national rise without striking the key-note of
power I. e. the spirit of freedom and love.

38

The rise of Enrope and America it not 'due
to Christ's personality. The right cause is
Vedanta practised unconsciously. The downfall
of India is due to Vedanta being absent in practice.

10

rK WOODS OF GOD-RFALIZAION

19

To be saved from (oreign politira the only
remedy te to live the Law of spiritual health—

the law of love foi yout neighbour.

40

What right hav< in the name of poriiy
or impurity^ to pUy the part of «lf-elected mem¬
bers of God's detective police, and pry mto tbe
private behaviour of a man whose public behavi¬
our is a help to the country ?

41

All that we have to arouse among the Hindu
people is a tpiiit of appreciation and not criticism,
the seniiment of fraternity, the instinct of syn¬
thesis the co-ordination of functions and aristo-

cracy of labour*

42

Assert your individuality against all society
and all nations and everything.

43

Sacrifice to Brihaspati is dedicating my
intellects (thoughts ) to all intellect in theland
or thinking for the good of the land as if myself

were none else than my countrymen-

44

If you cannot mote than support yourself in

SAYINGS ABOUT INDIA

11

foreign l&nds, remain there. Aod tf you are to
be a worklesa creeping leech on the aching bosom
of Mother India, jump into the Arabian Sea, and
well share her Arabian hospitality rather than
set foot again on India.

45

Instead of being scared by Western Science,
the Hindus today welcome her as the greatest
ally to their own Brahma Vidya (Shruii).

46

When you want to settle matters through
reasoning aod logic^ while the glass^partition of
caste-feeling do not let the hearts unite, you come
in dangerous proximity*

47

Religious sectarianism has clouded manhood
in Che poopie and eclipsed the sense of common
nationality.

48

Bhaktas of India 1 Vou will be the darling dear
of that sweet Cowherd when you see Him with
divine love in the Chandala, in ihe thief, in the
sinner, in the stranger, and alli and not confine
Him to mere stone images.

49

Those that you miscall **£allet)’^ have “not

12 IN WOODS OF CJOD'REALIZATION

risen" yet. They are-the Freshmen of the Uni-
versiiy just as you also were at o»e

50

Beloved orthodox people of India ! put into
force the Shastras aright, the Dharma of the
country demands of yon to relax the stringest
caste-rules and to subordinate the sharp class*
distioctions to the national fellow-feeling.

51

My beloved Hindus ! By aversion to change
or adaptation, laying loo much emphasis on the
old customs and heredity, pray, degrade not your
selves below the level of man.

52

Longtlludinally (or in time ) you may belong
tb the hereditary line of Himalayan Sages but
latitudinally Cin space) you cannot deny
yonr relation of co-existence with the Euiop^n
and American matter of fact wielders of Art and
Science^

53

If you are not willing and ready to assimilate
the New Light, which is also the old, old light
or yonr own land, go and live in Pitri Loka with
the forefathers. Why tac^y here ? Good bye 1

SAYINGS ABOUT INDIA

13

54

Waste DO time in thinkings Indio has been.
Call up ail your energy, which is infinite, and
reel, feel, India shall be.

55

As it is today ihe Swamis and Pandits in
India are singing lullabies to prolong the lethargic
sleep of their race.

56

Independent thinking is looked upon (In
India ) as heresy, nay worst crime. Whatever
cornea from the dead language is sacred.

57

A child turned Christian although the very
own desb and blood to a Hindu father, becomes
more a stanger than the street dog.

58

Truth’consciousness brings strength and vic¬
tory, Skin^consciousness ( even if it be Brahman-
consciousness Of Sannyasa-conschusness ) makes
a cobbler of you<

59

A woman ia given the position of an inani¬
mate object in civilised society whereas a man
is free in bis ways and a woman is kept bound
hand and foot. She becomes the property of
one mao, then of another man.

4

14 IN WOODS OF GOD'REALIZATION

60

It is a great blemish on the face of the oiviU-
sed society that woman is m:.de a mercantae
commodity and a woman is possessed and be¬
longs to a man in the same sense as a tree or a
oouse or money belongs to him.

61 4

Segleetiong the education of women, children
and the labouring classes is like cuttins down the
very branches that are supporting us. nay, it is
like striking death-blow at the very toot of the
tree of nationality*

Do not say marriage is opposed to leligion,
see what the real state of happiness is, what real

self is, as man aspiring to realisation meditates
upon true Bliss, reality, fundamental principle.

All marriage relations, braught about by attach¬
ment to the colour of the face, to the outlines
of the countenance, to figure, form or personal

beauty, end in losses, and are very unhappy.

64

The aim of the husband should be elevation

of the marriage tie, and not money making and

the wrong use of family relations.

THE PRESENT NEEDS OF INDIA

Shasta Sprino, California> U.S.A .

.Fairy flakes of virgin snow

are falling vehemently, yet most gracefully
withal, outside the window of Rama’s cottage;
and the whole mountain is literally shasta,
i. e. according to the French significance of
the word, chaste, pure, comely. Rama has
just laid aside one of the latest works on
Evolution.

The desire to be original and popular or
conspicuous often enough keeps people away
from the path of Truth. Waiving that kind
of desire and keeping the head level—neither
crest-fallen in ^oom, nor flying in the clouds
of self“flattery—if we face the problem of the
Present Needs of India, we are confronted
with the sore phenomenon in the country of
practically utter disregard of any relationship
or bond founded on the living together in the
same holy land, which means a deplorable
absence of neighbourly love. Religious
sectarianism has clouded manhood in the people
and eclipsed the sense of common nationahty.

16 IN WOODS OF OOD-REALIZAION

In America also there are as many, if not
more, sects and cults as in India, but except
in the case of a few shallow fanatics—chiefly
those whose living depends on their creed—
the thou^t of Catholicism, Methodism, Pres¬
byterianism etc, never replaces or subordinates
the feehng of fellow-countrymanship. To be
just and true it must be acknowledged that
the so-called religious feeling does not cast into
the shade the intrinsic humanity in America
as it does in India. In India Mohammedans
have been Jiving for generations and genera¬
tions along with the Hindus on the same soil,
but their sympathy is bound more to the Turks
in Southern Europe than to their next do^r
, neighbours in Hindustan, A child turned
Christian, although the very flesh and blood
of a Hindu father, becomes more a stranger
than the street dog. What will not an orthodox
dualistic Vaishnava in Mathura do to advance
the interests of a fellow Vaishnava in the
Deccan and to bring disgrace to a Monastic
Vedantin in his own town ? Who is to blame
for it ? The prejudices and shallow knowledge
fo all sects alike.

’me 1»R1SE?QT NEEDS OF INDIA

17

•“iEnemies living together’’ is an expression
far wrong to describe the present state of
iaffairs. The very idea of common nationality
^as Jbecosne a meaningless whim. And what
te ithe Catse of it? Evidently the cause is
tiderttifitallion with the dead forms of the
ipaSi and abject slavery to the fantastic
superstitions preached in the holy name of
religion :; in other words, spiritual suicide
glazed under the jflausible name of obedience
to author!^— praman, ha^aUt.

These parasitic ideas xannai he got rid of
except by purifyirig .the distilling process of
liberal education.'«ane knowledge, experimental
investigation, or a .systematic study ^ffBcientific
thought. (No sect or religion, that has not
^eome to an understanding with ithe ihealthy
humanising results of presenttday .scientific
research, has the least ri^t to prey aipon its
foolish votaries). Most of the difEemirt sets of
tseligious dogmas and practices ‘^of -the past
«aCcording to Rama, were xlo more than the
dictates the known fictenee ^of the times.
But as the fates would have .it, ^tlxese were
received at first with .bitter ujpposition, then

18

v«) “!<*• '.n?;:/ ** •
ni WOODS OF GOD-RCAUZATION

lO 9.1 ” '

with over-cMhusiasm, so much so that the>

mother (Independent Thought and MediUlion)

which gave birth to them was ignored^^x

killed in handling the child. The

were gradually taken on trust,.

himself a Christian, MohoUp^aiA. dP Hindii,

before he was aware of beieig a-man.r Si;^,^

tion on the .i;eligioiecvMd',«as r.th® n^tur^
consequence^ when, cr^ngl* to
laziness of the foUowers;^ Ihese d^gma^ and
practices began ta^be accepted on the authoruy
of personalitieil'and volumes of paper with
little recognition or acceptance of original
research; diligence and concentration, with
which the so-called prophets had
physical or. spiritual

and by'thffib»?hmgs of the practical adherggpe
to Christas Sermon on the Moynt^or |o Vedic
Yajnas wefc^'inmost cases ^^soarded to all
intents and* purposes ; buti,thairf.place was filled
with strongftFi^l^gian^.Po empty names. The
spirit was 'wtwJbr::.4riven out to
deadcarcasetJ Tfaus were hon^^t workers like
Christ, Mohwnn^, Vyas or Shankar, nick
named Prophets, that is to say, thieves or

THE PRESRNT NEEDS OF INDIA 19

stealers of sacred fire from Heaven, and their
books were disgraced by being pitched against
the original book of Nature, of which they
were faint, feeble readings in part.

Rama doss not mean to say that these
forms of creed had no use at all in the
economy of the world. Certainly, they had.
They were like the husk which is essential up
to‘a’Cer4i?i period for the life and growth of
the seedling it covers, but after a certain stage
of development the same husk becomes a
choking prison if not cast aside by the out¬
growing grain which is by far of higher value
than the husk.

To dispense with the static second-hand
readings of nature—to shake off the choking
husks—let every body feel that the Prophet’s
power is even his own birth-right and nothing
supernatural.

There are some who can never understand
the design or plan of a house unless they have
seen the house erected before them, and so
there are some who can never see or imagine
a step in advance of the present or past order
of things. The number of such is rapidly

20 IN '^fOODS GOD-REALIZATION

falling in India, it is hoped. To place people
above wavering oscillation, to make them
realize their natural dignity, nnity and feUow-
ship with aJl they see, to secure abiding natural
integration by procuring natural, helpful different
nation is the object of Dynamic Vedanta as
understood by Rama. Where is not this
Vedanta needed ? But India needs it the most
and worst of all.

To meet the requirements of the day m
India, with the object of spreading love and
light, it is proposed by Rama to start an Institu¬
tion called Life Institution.

ROUGH OUTLINE
Leaving out t«e Dbtaiu

This Institution will at first embrace chiefly
1 RELIGIOUS study of Comparative Religions and
PHILOSOPHY Philosophy. The candidates will.

be helped to make the ancient and modern
contending systems of Religion and Philosophy
a subject of study most dispassionately, soberly,
in the spirit of an unbiased, serene judge
(or calm Sakshi). Each student shall have to
study by himself (of course aided by the

THB PRESENT NEEDS CCF INDI^

21

Profcisor when necessary) the religious or
philsophical works just suited to his capacity,
and shall have in the evening before the
common aisembly to give an account of what
he read or had suggested to himself while
reading during the day. After hearing such
brief reports there will be every night a sifting
but respectful conversation under the raodera-
lorship of Rama to harmonise the subjects
dwelt upon by the different members of the
Institution. Thus will mutual harmony, undcEf
standing and love be advanced while each shares
the fruits of the mental labour of all trying in
return to lay before all the earnings of Ws
brain work.

This intellectual, social co-operation just
suited to the needs of the time must xn'ultiply
the efficiency of mental work and impart true
culture.

After giving the newly arrived students a
taste of this Co-operative method
2 SCIENCE Education through religion

and philosophy—for which the demand is
more direct in India—different branches of
Science Botany, Zoology. Electricity, Geology,

.22 IN WOODS OF COD-RBALIZATJON
Chemistry. Astronomy, etc., will be mtro^u«d

in the scheme of study, A library, laboraM-,
Observatory and the hke
develop along with the

Science courses. . ...

The attempt to populdrirf Science by the

Institution aims at to abolish' some of the
glaring religious misunderstandings and to
employ the energies of people m a more
rational and useful direction. Moreover the
learning of Science in this Institution is to be
in the most religious spirit. Science, art and
other works (apparently secular) are to be
pursued here to learn the appl‘<=al, 0 n of
Vedantic spirit to business ot for the acquisition
of practical (or Applied) Vedanta Of Agassiz
a great naturalist, it is said that the laboratory
was not less holy to him than the Church, and
a physical fact not less sacred than a moral
Principle. To trace the homologies m different
species in nature was to him “to think again

tte thoughts of God.”

The functions of the InsUtution will be
3 INDUSTRIAL extended in due time to a third
ARTS department, that of Industnal

THE PRESENT NEEDS OF INDIA

23

Arts, as to the sad want of which iu India
nothing need be said now.

Some of the greatest Universities in
America and Europe (Yale, Harvard, Standford
Chicago, for instance) are entirely private
concerns. It is a pity that the people of India
still look up to the Government models to
educate themselves and do not see their own
needs.

In ^e Life Institute, proposed by Rama,
the herSici as well as the orthodox writings
will be welcomed with scientific equanimity.
The watch word of the Institute (Math) is to
be Truththe whole Truth and nothing but

OM ! OM !! OM f!!

NOTE—The above was addressed to Sawmi
Shivagan Acharya of Shanti Ashram, Mathura)

—:o:—

..V. eV (

... tffi"*'

NATIONAL DHA^UA

So many sects, so many creeds,

So many patlis that wind and wmd,

While just the art of being kma
ts all the sad world needs/’

It is sunset. With deep sighs the
is being chanted and with sueaming tears it is

being written:—

u\ saw a vi«on once, aad it semeiimea re-appcat^^
a* saw a viw j

Tod .hen that vhioa comes and I see my Flor„>^ (India).

The day was going sohly down, the brseae bad died awayi
wafers from the fat West came slowly tolling oh
SrUMhe clouds, the ccean wave, one mcl^ gloty layi
IJwIaed into crimson by the deep ted Sun.

AS silently I stood and gaaed befote the fjloty passed,
Thwe row a sad remembrance of days lohg gone,

S^X^sTychildhoodcameagainmyrni^w-overcast

As’^I^gaaed upon the going down of that red Shn.

NATIONAL DHARMA 25

The Past upon my spirit rushed, the dead were 5tandin| near
Their cheeks were warm again with bfe, their

windiog sheets were goaej

The voices rang like marriage bells coce more upai eny ear;
Their eyes were gaaing there with mitieoa that red Suo.

Many days have passed «Qcethen> many chequered yeersj.
I have wandered lar and wide* still 1 fear 1 am not well;
For often as the Sun goes down.my eyes All up with tears*
And then that vision comes, and I see my Florimel"

O Setting Sun \ Thou art going to rise in
I India. Wilt Thou please carry this message of
Rama to that land of glory ? May these tear¬
drops of love be the morning dew in the
fields of India ! As a Shaiva worships Shiva, a
Vaishnava Vishnu, a Buddhist Buddha, a
Christian Christ, a Mohammedan Mohammed,
with a heart turned into a “Burning Blush,*’
see and worship India in the form of a Shmva,
Vaishnava, Buddhist, Christian* Mohammedan,
Parsi, Sikh, Sannyasi, Pariah, or any of Her
children. I adore Thee in all Thy manifestations,
Mother India, my Gangaji, my Kali, my
Isht Deva, my Shaligram. While talking
about worship, says the God who loved to eat
the very clay of India:—“The difficulty of those

26 IN WOODS OP GOD-REALIZATION

whose miiids are set on the unmaniftsted is
greater; for the path of the unmanifested is
hard for the embodied to reach/’ Well,
all right, Sweet Krishna, let mine be the path
of adoration of that manifestation divine of
whom it is Said:—“All his household property
consists of a jaded ox, one side of a broken
bedstead, an old hatchet, ashes, snakes, and an
empty skull*’ Is it the Mahadeva of Mahimna-
stotra ? No, 1 m^n the living Narayana as
the poor starving Hindustani, Hindu. This .is
my religion ; and for an inhabitant of India,
this should le lie Elaiira, Ccirmon Path,
Practical Vedanta, or Divine Love. Mere
lukewarm approbation or toleration won’t do.

1 want ACTIVE CO-OPERATION from every
child of India to spread chis .dynamic spirit of
Nationality. A child can 5 ever' reach, ^puth’
except when he passes through boyhood. A, ,
person can never realize his unity ’with God,
the All, except when unity with the' WHOLE.
NATION throbs in every fibre of his frame..
Let every son of India stand for the service of
the Whole, seeing that whole India is embodied;
in every son. Almost every town, stieam,

NAtlONAL DHARMA 27

tree, stone, and animal is personified and'
sanctified in India. Is it not high time now
to deify the* entire Motherland and let every
partial manifestation, inspire ,us with devotion
to the Wholes Through J^rana Pratisktha
Hindus endow with flesh and blood the effigy
of Durga, Is it not worth while to call forth
the inherent glory and evoke fire and life in the
more real Durga of Mother India ?-Let us
put our heatss together, the heads and hands'
will naturally unite.'

'‘The man consists of his faith (Shraddha,
Islam)/’ says the world's warrior-evangdist
(Krishna), ‘that which' one's faith' is, he is
even that.'’

, ; Beloved orthodox people of India, put into
force the Shastras aright. The Apatti Dkarma
of-the country demands of you‘to relax the
stringent caste-rules and to subordinate the
sharp class distinctions to the national fellow
feeling: Don't you see, India who has held
open port to all* fugitives and adventurers, and
supported so many- races and countries,' is*
unble now to give bread to her own childrCd ?'
M every.- man* have equal liberty to find his

28 IN WOODS OF GOD-RRALIZATTON

own level. Head as high as you please, but
feet should be always on the common ground,
never upon anybody’s shoulders or neck, even
though he be weak or willing.

Young would-be-Reformer! decry not the
ancient Customs and Spirituality of India. By
introducing a fresh element of discord, the
Indian people cannot reach Unity. The reli¬
gion and spirituality of India are not to
blame for India’s material downfall. The gar¬
den is robbed; because the thorny fence and pri¬
ckly hedges were wanting. Supply that, and be
not rash enough to pull out the roses and fruit-
trees in the centre in the name of reform and
improvement. 0 blessed thorns and hedges,
ye are the saving principles, ye are needed in
India.

When I sing the dignity of Sudra labour,
I am not exalting Tomas over Rajas and Sattva.
I simply say, enough have we decried Tamas
in India, and by the very act of resenting and
resisting it, developed it dreadfully in out
midst. Let us learn to use Tamas by this time
and make it glorious that way*

How co^ld the gardens grow if we threw

NATIONAL DHARMA 29

/

away the dirty manure and not used it ?

Tamas is the coal» without which there can be
no hre and steam {Rajas\ and no light (Sativa).

And in proportion to the large basis of the
Tamas quality i$ the intensity and power of
that Rajas fire and Satt^a light, in a country
which movement can evolve: a view in
remarkable harmony with the conclusions of
modern phrenology; where it is found (hat
for heroic greatness and energy of character,
no development of the moral and iatelleotual
organs, however favourable, is sufficient
without a powerful basis in the animal or
Tamas energies of man.

It i$ for this that Mahadeva, the Great
Lord, was depicted as the Lord or Ruler of
Tarms by the Hindus.

If we are born in critical times of Indian

1

History, let us be thankful, for our
opportunities for seryice are more abundant.
The work for us is more unique, more poetic
and tiynamic. It is said, they who sleep well,

^ wake well. India has had a long sleep, her
wakefulness 1$ going to be most remarkable
for that. All that we have to arouse among

30 IN WOODS OF OOD-J^EALIZAION

the Indian people is “A spirit of appreciation
and not criticism, the sentiment of fraternity,
the instinct of synthesis, the co-ordination of
functions and aristocracy of labour.'’

Oh ! What an infinite amount of ener^
in the land is just recidessly wasted away in
one sect criticising another sect! Let ns tyy
to find out the points of contact and emphasize
those between us. There ar^ people whom
the Arya Samaj can reach and Sanatan
Dharma cannot, there are others to whom the
Brabmo Samaj only, appeds,*. and so with
Vaishnavism. etc. What right have I to find
fault with those who do not care for the
strength and joy which my creed brings ? .

Let them come, let them stay or leave. I
let things flow, just flow. Why should you
or I try to monopolize sympathizers ? .My
right is only to serve, ’to serve them'. .all,
serve those who love and those who . hate (if
any). A mother loves those children the most
who are the weakest and play the mean.
Those who differ frpra -you, are they aU wrong?
If so. they ’ also are needed by the country.
Sad indeed .would be tie s^le.of ^..walkw

KATTONAL DHARMA 31

who had only the right leg to hop along with.
True Education means learning to look at
things through the eyes of God.

0 Lord? look not upon my, evi) qualities I
Thy name» 0 Lord, is Same^ightedoess?'

By Thy touch? if Thou wilt?..

Thou canst, make me pure..

One drop of water Is In the sacred Jamoa?
Another is foul in the ditch by. the ^adside.

But when they fall into Ganges?

Both alike bedome holy.

One piece of iron is the Image in the temple?
Another is the knile in the band of the butcher»
But when' they touch the philospher’s stone.
Both alike turn Co gold.

So, Lord, look not upon my evil qualities !

Thy name 0 Lord? is Same-Sigh ted ness.

By Thy touch, if Thou wilt,

Thou canst make me pure.

( Translation .from Sordas as given in. the
beautiful work—T/re web of Indian Ufe-NiveditaX

Our personal and local Dharma must never
be placed higher than the National Dharma.

32 IN WOODS OP GOD-REALIZA tON

The keeping of right proportions only secures
felicity.

Doing any thing to promote the well-being
of the nation is serving the Cosmic Powers,
Devas or gods. This kind of sacrifice or
Yajm is to be offered to the deity, India.
It is to this kind of Yajna that the
following verse of the Gita applies in these
days:—•

“The righteous, who eat only the remains of
th£ sacrifice are freed from all sins; but the
impious, who dress food for their own sake
they, verily eat sin”. . .

To realize God, have the Sannyasa spirit,
i e. entire renunciation of self-mterst,
making the Uttle self absolutely at one with the
great self of Mother India. To realize God
or Bliss, have the Brahman Spirit, dedicating
your intellect to thoughts for the advancement
of the nation. To realize Bliss, you have to
possess the Kshatriya spirit, readiness to lay
down your life for the country at every second.
To realize God, you must have the true
Vaishya spirit, holding your property only in
' trust for the nation. But to realize Bliss

NATIONAL DHARMA

33

aad Rama in That world or This, and to give a
living concrete objective reality to your abstract
subjective Dharma, you have to work this
Sannyasa Spirit, Brahman. Kshatriya and
Vaisbya heroism through your hand and feet in
the manual labour once relegated to the holy
Sudras. The Sannyasa spirit must be wedded
to the Pariah hands, This is the only way to
day. Wake up, Wake up ! '

Even the foreign countries through their
practice leach to-day this Dharma to our India,
the only Brahman land in the world.

When a Japanese youth is refused enlist¬
ment in the army on the ground of his
obiigationsito his mother (domestic Dharma),
the mother coininits suicide, sacrificing the
lower (domestic ) Dharma for the higher
(national) Dharma.

What heroic deeds could compare with the
sacrifice of personal, domestic and social
Dharma for the sake of the National Dbarrna
on the part of that Ideal Guru of Glory
( Gobtnd Singh ) ?

People hanker after power. What an infinite
power can you not find at your command

34 IN WOODS OF OOD-REAUZATION

when your self stands in unity with the Self
of the whole Nation ? In cofldu8ion> let me
illustrate this spirit in the beautiful words of
the Prophet of Islam:—

“If the Sun stand on my right hand and the
Moon on my left, ordering me to turn ba«k» I
would not obey.’’

OM! OM I

^ ’TOT ^ i

^ ?f fin* ^ ^ 1

fet ’ttS *8r ^tSrt I

THE PROBLEM OF INDIA

(This paper was sent by Swami Rama to Laia
Har Dayal, M- A. to be read oo the Anniversary
of the Yoangmen’s Indian Asociatioaf Lahore.
It appeared in the East and the West^ as a
general message to the rising India.)

Union, Union, Everybc>dy feels the need
of uniwi. Myriads of forces are neutralising
each other. No resultant force. Hundreds of
n)illion$ of brains and bands drifting, drifting,
who can tell whitlier? Thousands of sects and
classes each trying to row the boat in the pet
direction of its own sweet whim. No regular
steering ! L^tthe oars be where they are. Keep
your position, shift not, but row in one direc¬
tion. Such harmony, unity in diversity, ensures
progress, Thus working at your posts, sing on
and . move on. The national interest demands
that, and in the interest of the whole lies the
interest of each unit.

It is cheap rhetoric to talk that way. But
why has the spirit of union and harmony
been so conspicuous by its singular absence in
India so long ?

36

IN WOODS OF GOD-RBALIZATION

The main causes are

(j) Poverty of practical wisdom, aod

(b) Plenty of population.

\Vc shall discuss them in order.

(a) Poverty of practical wisdom: ^

Before the Molmmmedan tn\t in India.
Alberuni of Khurasan travelled through this
country, He was an enlightened philosopher
and cultured scholar. He studied Sariskrit and
read our Scriptures with the same'zeal as he
did Plato and Aristotle, He has left detailed
descriptious of India as he found her. 01
Hindu Philosophy, Poetry and Astronomy he
talks with great respect and reverence ; he
eulogizes the amount of learning m some of the
Pandits he met. But the slate of the masses
and the condition of the women he describes
as worse than deplorable. Physically, intellectu¬
ally, morally and of course spiritually also
he calls them wrecks, neglected and down-
Uodden in every way; divided socially, religious¬
ly and politically ; with uncollected minds and

dissipated bodies, innumerable hordes of them,

through lack of discipline hying like particles
of dust before the Moslem invaders who came

THE PROBLEM OM INDIA

37

year after year to plunder India under Mahmud
of Ghazni. Later on Baber complains of the
natives of India as sadly lacking in ingenuity,
originality and skill in everything, knowing
practically nothing of industrial arts or fine arts,
having DO Architecture, gardens, canals,and even
gun powder. He denounces ^hem as incapable
of associating freely with each other. Allowing
for what Is called the personal equation in
these accounts, deducting the exaggerations,
if any, \^e shall find these statements sadly
true. It was the poverty of practical wisdom
which brought about Uie downfall of India,

To refute theoretically what these foreign
historians say is as easy for Rama as for any
body else, but dear me I it is but plain facts
and solid truths which they have 'faithfully
committed to writing. How could I say ‘'no”
10 the self evident evidence ? Lack of practical
wisdom hinted at above comprehends all the
social evils like contempt of manual labour,
unnatural divisions and sub-divisions on Caste
and Creed lines, aversion to foreign travelling
child marriage, and the general darkness
(intellectual and physical) enforced on women

38 IN WOODS OF GOD-REALIZATION

This social corruption is a hard thing to deal
with. It is well said by Burke, “Reform is a
thing which has to be kept at a distance to
please us.*' To break off from the moorings of
Custom is indeed a trying job. It inevitably
involves hard criticisms and censure of the
society on the workers and of the workers on
the society, thus breeding ilbfeelings, misunder¬
standings^ and dismion. To escape this dis¬
union, should we let matters move at random
and plume ourselves on the wisdom of minding
our own business ? To work out your own
salvation and let society alone, oh ! if only it
were possible ! A drowning society cannot let
you alone. You must sink with her If she
sinks and rise with her if she rises. It is an
utter absurdity to believe that an individual
can be perfect in an imperfect society. The
hand might just as well cut itself from the
body and acquire perfection of strength,

Long has this unvedantic thought been
cherished in India, entailing pitiable
dismemberment of tbe community. Promising
youths I India’s future is your future and you
are responsible for it. Cowards are governed by

THE PROBLEM OF INDIA

39

the superstitions of the magic majority. The
genuine living sou! governs the hearts and
thoughts of the people, let the nominal outward
Ruler be he who may, The B. A. or M. A.
degrees you receive from the University; but
between being a Coward and a Hero you have
to choose yourselves. Say, which position is
your choice ? That of an abject slave or the
prince of life ? Strong and pure life is the lever
of History, Newton’s Second Law of Motion
characterizes Force as affecting a change in the
motion of the body on which it acts. For
centuries and centuries, unnatural antipathies
and worse still, apathies have been running
uniformly on the tracks of Custom and
Superstition in our land. It is for you, youths of
culture and character, to be the living force to
change the wasteful momentum s now no longer
required. Overcome the old 'inertia, turn the
direction of motion where needed, add to (he
acceleration where necessary, and alter the
moving mass where advisable. Work on, work
on. Mould and adapt the Past to Present
and boldly launch your pure and strong Present
in the race of Future. We cannot do without

40 IN WOODS OF GOD RBALtZATCON

our inheritance from the fore-fathers; the society
which renounces it must be destroyed from
without Still less we can do with too muchot
it- the society in which it dominates must be
destroyed from within. Is truthful life on your
part likely to beget disseasion, disunion in
society ? Do you think so ? Stand firm even it
alone; recant not, this is manliness; the current
is with you ; the tide is on your side ; let them
claim the past, all the future is yours, if oniy
you do not swerve from the path of truth- As
to the nation, that kind of union save her
which is not for righteousness ?
the people by keeping them m the dark ? Oiuld
national harmony be secured by sworn s ave_^
to error and superstition ? Suppose all the
sailors’ work is in a common direction, but il
that direction be negative, not one with the
Evolutionary course, not Truth-ward, wouW
that be desirable? Such a boat is bound to be
shattered to pieces on a rock, and perhaps the
sooner the better. Meeting is possible in Heaven
alone. Union in purity and truth alone is prac¬
ticable. Aspirers after National unity, you have,
first to free the nation of numerous inhuman errors

THE ?ROBLBM OF JNDIA

41

Tf for the cause of humanity, truth and pro¬
gress, DOW the masses are being molested and
now the workers arc being pers«;iited„ that
J7hows the eomiryis spiritually alive, and the up
and down breathing is properly going on.

The ideal conduct knows no pain; it is all
peace, shedding love and light all around. But
how can painless peace and awakening light,
both of them live and move together ia a
comiDimity where the approach of light is as-yet
felt to be a torment? So, if by the very nature
of the case, you cannot carry an ideal
conduct, let it be real at least. That is what is
needed and wanted most. A country is streng¬
thened not by great men with small views, bat
small men with great views. Peace? A brutal
lethargy is peaceable, the noisome grave is
peaceable. We hope for a living peace, not
a dead one ! To keep your light beneath the
bushel when people are stumbling in the dark
is worse than if you had no light. He is a
criminal, forsaking his post, who holds the
helpful word, (hat is in him, silent at such times.

(6) We come now to the population
question,

42 IN WOODS OF GOD REALIZATION

As to what Malthus and other Political
Economists say on the subject, it need not be
dwelt upon here. Malthus simply re-echoes the
verdict of Biology. Let us see what Naturalists
say on the point. Huxley compares a colony
or community to a garden located in the jungle
of wild nature. The process of Social Evolution,
(or as hd calls it the Ethical process) is analogous
to the process of gardening (che horticultural
process),‘buf both these arc antithetic to the
process of wild nature or the Cosmic process.
The wild* nature process is characterized by
the intense and unceasing struggle for existence,
the horticultural and moral processes are
characterized by the elimination of that struggle,
the removal of the conditions which give rise to
it. Henry Drummond makes strenuous eiforts
to prove the identity of these processed, but
with all his loud show, goes hot an inch beyond
the conclusions of Darwin and Huxley. Nor
can he deny what in fact no person in his
senses could ever deny, that if the gardener
do not continuously resuain multiplication
by weeding &c,j and prevent wild and thick
growth, full soon will the wild nature^process

THE PROBLEM OF INDIA

43

re-esUb]ish itself in the garden and begin to
work havoc, taking the old. merciless course of
of struggle and .strife, driving .out the rule of
peace and prosperity. Just so, in a community,
when the limit of possible expansion has been
reached, if no measures are taken to dispose of
the surplus population, fierce struggle must re*
ensue, and destroy the peace, choke out the
ethical process, nullify the, moral precepts and
turn God’s Q(jmtna.ndments into dead letter.
At such junctures, inevitably begins the corrup¬
tion and downfall of nations. In the decline
and fall of Rome, Greece, or any country, there
lay at bottom this population question. Jndia
reached this critical point of increase long ago
and we have done nothing to prevent the root
evil. No country on the face of the earth is
30 poor and so populous, as India. An average
Indian home is typical of the state of the whole
nation ; very slender means, and not only
yearly multiplying mouths to feed but also
slavishly incurring undue expenses in meaning¬
less and cruel ceremonies 1 Even animals in
the same stable must fight to death with each
other when the fodder suffices for one or two

44

IN WOODS OF GOD-REAUZATION

only and their number is legion. Not Vo
remove the bone of contention and preach
peace to the people is mockery of preaching.
My countrymen are meek, and peac^ol at
heart. The heart is willing no doubt, but how
can they help jealousies and selfishness when
the weakness of the flesh is forced upen them
by the necessity cf the case. If the population
problem is to be left unsolved, all talk about
national unity and mutual amity will remain
a Utopian chimera. We have to solve the
riddle of ibis Sphinx or we die. Sympathy and
unselfishness, according to Biological pj inciples,
cannot grow under such general social environ¬
ments where pain ©r suffering is daily displayed
by our associates. With^uch populous poverty
around^'ou, Indians, it is hoping against hope
to develope SyBpathy and Love. Students
of Phydes know that a mass of matter, of
whatever kind, maintains itsinterna) equilibrium
so long as its component particles severally
stand towards their ndghbours in equidistant
positions, so that each molecule may perform
its rhythmic movements bounded by the like
spaces required for the movements of riiose

THE PROBLEM Of INDIA

45

around. Now, what about the mass of India?
Can its individual units perform their rhythmic
movements^ without clashing with others?.
Have they scope enough for free, natural
movement ? If for one. that eats, ten must
starve, you have to take immediate measures
to make the national equilibrium more secure;
Otherwise, the only hope for India lies in the
grim caresses of wild nature, which for extreme
cases like ours, have been ehamerated by the
Maharshi Vasishthji as Pestilence, Famine,
Destractive War and Earthquakes. Enough
of the evil. Now wbat is the remedy ? It is
manifold.

1.-The dark notion that stepping out of
India will debar you from Heaven,, should leave
the land for good, and with that notion let as
many Indians leave the land as cannot Hve
here ; depart, emigrate. What joy is there in
making yourselves the fabled frog of thB well ?
Will you never see that you are making fair
India a suffocating Black holt for yourselves ?

—There was a time for the Aryan colo¬
nists in India when it was a blessing to have
large progeny. But those times are gone, the

46 IN WOODS OF GOD REALIZATTON

tables are turned, and in view of the over-crow¬
ded population, it has become a curse to have
a large family. The thoughtless person who
still clings to the childsh idea that his attain¬
ment of Heaven after death depends on his
children, let him open his eyes and see that
even before death, he is turning his home into
hell through multiplicity of production in
modem India. It was just this plea on Arjuna's
part of supposing sons to be the levers to
Heaven which Sbri Krishna had in mind while
denouncing the aspirants after sensuous para¬
dise in Bhagwad Gita, {Ch. II verses 42—15.)
It is worth your while to read those slokas and
catch the spirit of independence they carry.
Let us sweep out from the country the most
pernicious principle which has practically been
swaying us so long:—Marry, multiply in
igporance, live, and in bondage die. Now we
blame the Mohammedan rulers for our
backwardness, now we find fault with the
British- Government, then we hold India’s
Religions responsible, again we charge the
system of Education. To some extent we may
be right in such criticisms, but the real blame

THE PROBLEM OF INDIA

47

lies at the door of that impurity which vitiates
the most sacred relation in the world, the very
relation which produces all the Indian people
and makes us what we are, the marriage rela*
lion. This, the most important and holiest
of all Institutions,, is the most carelessly, most
unscientifically and most shamefully attended
to. With all your horoscopes and astrological
calculations, auspicious omeoising, hyifih
chanting and innumerable sacred ceremonials,
the marriages in India are ill timed, inauspici*
ous and unholy No planets can dare stay
at inauspicious houses when they behoJd
underage couples going to be wedded in the
names of their influenced They tremble and
shudder out of their positions at this inhumane
sight—a sight even beneath animals 1 Instead
of sanctifying the profane wedding of a couple
that cannot support themselves, the Vedic
hymns lose all their virtue and for all futurity
from that instant* become ineffectual. What
flowers can keep their sweetness under the
sacrilegious odour of the ceremony going to
unite paupers to multiply unfit,- incapable,
worthless parasites in the land.

48 tN WOODS OF GOD-R£ALlZATION

Young men, stop it! stop it! Ye youths,
responsible for tbe future of Indru, stop it. In
the name of rooraUty, in the name
for your own sake and for the sake o€ yohr
descendants, pray stop indiscriminate, W^timed.
blind marriages in the country. That, mil
purify the people and solve to some extent

the population problem,

Suppose that these suggestions are unnatu-
rd. The directions you have to put in pradnce
at the penality of pining famine and lingenng
death No exaggeration ! Sternest facts and
dismal reality are clothed in these words, ^e
not the phenomena of infent marciage irfd
virein widowhood the most unnatural m the
world? Ask any civilized community under
the Sun. Is any grain of humanity left m
you ’ Then how can you rest before you
have put a check on these inhuman, unnatural
customs ? The tender arms of widowed children
are unconsciously held out for succour ; liv.ag
Satis are burning by inches on the pyre of
vour fury of customs right before your eyes ,
Divinity is peeping through their mn^ent
weeping eyes, looking up to you for help.

THE PROBLEM OF INDU

49

How long will you turn away from the crying
bhamni ? Turn a deaf ear to her bitter cries
any longer, and she must transform herself
into a dreadful Nemesis, blood thirsty and
vengeance*seeking. Even the earth shakes and
quakes at her sight. They talk about peace !
peace ! How can you have peace in the country
so long as the self invited Nemesis is there?
In Europe, the lower the people, the more
early they marry, but of course none marry so
young, not even the lowest of the low, as
Hindustanis do. The higher classes very rarely,
if ever, marry before thirty, The idea is to
have fewer children bat fit.

Herbert Spencer, in his principles of
Biology* shows that fertility must diminish
along with high mental development. How
long shall wc keep ourselves so low as to go
on valuing animal fertility ? According to our
own Shastras that are never tired of praising
the virtues of Brahmacharya, there is no
strength, spiritual or physical, except in purity,
That part of the human energy which is express*
ed as sex-energy in sexual functions, sexual
'thought and so oo, when checked and

50 IN WOODS OF GOD REALIZATION

controlled, easily becomes changed into Ojas,
inexhaustible spiritual power.

You have to acquire control over the sex-
irapulses. The fool who cannot control the
animal passion and trifles widi the most serious
relation in Nature, the sex-relation, knows not
that he is Uteraily spilling his own blood, his
own white blood that constitutes his vitality.
The root of all sin is this divine energy
misdirected, as dirt has been defined to be
but riches in the wrong place. The epithet
anitml applied to passion intensifies lowness.
Animals are certainly low and silly in their
acts of indiscriminate production, It is their
undue multiplication entailing bloody struggle
as consequence that marks the infamous
stigma on their conducl. Yet animals are
perfectly innocent of any indulgence for
indulgence’ sake. Man is supposed to be
higher than animals in as much as his feelings
are controlled by reason. Now the man who
equals the lower animals in mdisciiminate
multiplication and sicks far below animals in
unnecessary, unclean indulgence, what lowness
and degradation will not be visited on him ?

THE PROBLEM OF I>®IA 51 '

Purity! Purity 1 At bayonet's point you
have to acquire Purity. The merciless wheel
of Evolutionary struggle will utterly annihilate
you, if you do not acquire purity. Your only
hope lies in Purity to-day. Just as process
of Evolution forced chaste attitudes in near
relations among the savages, so does survival
to-day imperatively demand clean minds and
chaste behaviour on your part 0 people of
India, you cannot live if you lack that. Let
it be hard or easy, you have to acquire it, for
the sake of India, for your bodies sake, for
your brains’ sake, for religion's sake, for this
world or that, you have to be thoroughly pure.
No heroism without purity, no union without
purity, no peace without purity.

Education —Even the unschooled persons
in America or England are more intelligent
than the ordinary undergraduates or our
Universities, How is that ? The chief source
of their culture is the cheap daify press.
Newspapers disseminate knowledge more
extensively in England, Japan and America
than Colleges do. We thank our Government
aJid other Institutions for spreading Education

5351

52 IN WOODS OF GOD-RBAUZATION

to a degree in our country; but that is
practically nothing, and no one is to blame for
the ignorance of our masses and the dark and
dreadful status of our women but ourselves.
The vital energy which is now being recklessly
wasted in degrading deeds and no-deeds,
utilize it in endeavouring to elevate the
women, to educate the masses, to uplift
yourselves and to raise the nation. The easiest
and most direct way to accomplish that would
be to improve the condition of the Indian
Press. Start really useful papers and improve
those already extant, if any, in the Vernaculars
of the women and masses, Perhaps one or
two attempts were were already made in this
direction, but they failed, because
advanced student class, as a rule, disdains
to handle the vernacular stuff, you must
learn to respect your mother tongue. Let the
Youngmen's Indian Association start an organ
in easy, plain and simple Hindi, rather Punjabi,
in Hindi characters, avoiding Persian or
Sanskrit words, as far as possible, steering clwr
of perverse taste of using a style in which
you are the least at home. Be natural, write

THE PROBLEM OF INDIA

53

as you thinks icaitate qo oae. College scudeats
might contrftute small articles, To try your
hand now and then at eitpressing in yoifr
mother tongue the most striidag sentimenU
and enlightening thoughts which you come
across in your reading, will benefit you more
than the readers, .although others will imagine
that it benefits the readers more than you. For
this work let no details trouble or tire you.
The first Number should begin with the Hindi
Alphabet and easy combinations of letters into
familiar words, and let the blessed College
students, the pioneers of light and learning in
the land, undertake the happy Duty of initiating
into reading and writing their sisters, mothers,
wives, daughters or other femle relatives who
cannot read and write. Wait not for Public
School systems. This sacred tpust faUs on
your shoulders. If India is to live, the work
of Female Education must widely propagate.
Then why may it not begin at your hands ?
See to it that no woman or poor man is left
unlettered in the Province. Blot out this stain
of ignorance from the face of the country.
Are you ashamed or afraid of teaching the

54

IN WOODS OF G0D-REAU2ATI0N

sweeper woman in your neighbourhood ? ihen
fie on your manners and morals ! Approach
the poor and ignorant folk with mother)iko
sympathy and love to educate them. What
an angelic work t In tJie organ of Y. M. F. A.
gradually let lessons on Blementary Physics,
Physiology, Astronomy. History, Political
Economy. Psychology, etc., be introduced in
as interesting and easy a way as you can com¬
mand, and by and by the style may be made
more classical. Rama recommends Hindi
characters for the paper, for Hindi bids fair
to become ere long the national language of
India. To educate women and the poor is a
paramount duty before you, a duty which
being well discharged must ultimately exalt
yourselves immensely. But forget not that there
is also a more direct and even more imperative
work for you, viz. to acquire agricultural arts
and industries in more advanced countries and
spread broadcast that useful knowledge in India.

Religion—H as the paper tried your
patience too long ? Are you tired of listening ?
Tired or not, hold on! Rama c^aot let you go
until he gives you the one thing he knows. Ye

THE PROBLEM OP INDIA

55

wedding Guests I Have you to attend to most
important calls of duty ? May be, but the
Ancient Mariner will not leave you until you
are told the one thing he was born to tell. No
call of duly can be more important than
listening to Rama’s message.

Domestic, social or national duties are your
karma hand; and no karma or ‘deed of noble
note can be carried on in the dark, except
only that the deeds of ‘darkness may be
committed in the dark. Without keeping
alive the flame of Faith and the torch of
burning Jnanam in your breast you cannot
accomplish anything, you cannot advance
a single step. Ail these directions «and details
that are everyday dinned into your ears are
simply as the body of your lives ; but without
the spirit never can the body stand. The spirit
of all successful movement is living Faith and
flaming Jnanam. Even the avowed champions
of materialism, scepticism, positivism, atheism
and agnosticism, owe their success vnconscious*
ly to the active spirit of religion in them. In
some instances, they lived more religion than
the Professors of Religion; Here is, say, the

56

JN WOODS OF GOD-REVLJZATION

Rubber Factory giving employment to
thousands and thousands of workless hands,
opening the national trade, multiplying
capital in the country, encouraging the poor
labouring class, bringing plenty of work and
emoluments to the steamship companies,
railway employees, post offices, etc. etc. Yet
how could the whole affair be if but one chemi¬
cal equatiorii one invisible inner reaction did not
lend grandeur ? So can none of your personal,
domestic,social or political undertakings flourish
free except by borrowing grace and glory
from the inner reaction, the heart conversion,
Reformation, the spiritual equation
or in your very soul, a God^revolution. '‘Faith
is great,” says Caryle. “life giving.” The hisWry
of a nation becomes fruitful, soul elevating,
great, as it believes. These Arabs, the man
Mohammed, and that one century, is it not as if
a spark had fallen, one spark, on a world of
what seemed black, unnoticeable sand 7 But lo,
the sand proves explosive powder, blazes
heaven-high from “Delhi to Grenade.” Allah-
ho-Akbar 1 There is nothing great but God.

Whatever is truly great, springs up from the

THE PROBLEM OF INDIA 57

inarticulate deeps within. Whoever lives not
wholly io the Divine Idea, or living partially in
it Struggles not as for the One God to live
wholly in it, he is, let him live wherever else
he likes, in whatever pomp or prosperity he
chooses, a nonentity, not alive, dead.

Even H. Spencr in his very last work,
which might be called his dying Swan song,
referring .to an experiment of Huxley with the
large brained porpoise, says, “The body of
our thought-consciousness consists of feeling,
and only the form constitutes what we distin¬
guish as intelligence. That part which we
ordinarily ignore, when speaking of mind, is its
essential part, viz- feelings. The feelings are
the master, the intellect is the servant.” Feelings,
known in popular language as hearty the
religion of faith and religion, at once prompt
the acts and yield the energy for performance
of the acts. “Little can be done’' continues
Spencer, “by improving the servant (head)
while the master, (heart) remains unimproved.”
and how remarkably does this conclusion of
the redoubled arch Agnostic agree with the
verdict of the ablest Psychologist of the age

58 IN WOODS OF OOD-REAUZATiON

(Prof. Janies). “Religious experiences are as
convincing as any direct sensible experience
can be, and they are as a rule much more
convincing than results established by logic
ever are.” To live at a deeper level of your
nature than the loquacious level, to sound the
depths of your being, to realize, feel and be the
innate Reality in you which is also the innate
Reality in Nature, to be a living personification
of Tat-lvam-asi.

This» this is life ; this Immortality I

This is to live and mcFve as power, Shaitti.

That splits pUlare with the glances

Such can say,

1—The world turns aside,

To make room for Me
I come, blazing Light

And the shadows most flee.

2.—0 moantaios. Beware 1

Come not in n>y way ;

Your ribs will be shattered
And tattered to-day.

%—0 Kings and Commanders I

TKE PROBLEM OF INDIA 5$

My fanciful toys I
liere’s a De}ug« of fire.

Line Clear ! my boys!

4— 1 bitch to my chariot,

The Fates and the Gods,

With thunder of Cannon,
l^f©claim it abroad '•

5 — Shake I shake off delusion,

Wake I Wake up I Be free.

Liberty I Liberty I Liberty (

This Jnmiamj the inexhaustible power of
which is one aspect, has for the other aspect
Infinite, Infinite Peace.

Peace immortal falls as rain*drops,

Nectar is pouring in musical rain ;

Drizijle I Drizzle 1! Drizzle III

My clouds of glory, they march so gaily I
The worlds as diamonds drop from them !
Drizzle I Drizzle tl Drizzle III

My breezes of Law blow rhythmical,

rhythmical.

Lo I nations fall like petals, leaves ;

Drizzle ! Drizzle II DrizsJe II)

60 IN WOODS or CiOD“REALl2ATJON

My balmy breath, the breeze of Law,
Blows beautiful I beautiful I
Some objects swing and sway like twigs,
And others like the dew-drops fall;
Drizzle 5 Drizzle H Drizzle !!!

My graceful Light, a sea of white,

An ocean of milk, it undulates.

It ripples, softly, softly, softly,

Aud then it beats out words of spray.

I shower forth the stars as spray,

Drizzle I Drizzle !) Drizzle 111

OM ! OM !! CM in

THE FUTURE OF INDIA

Written as Introduction to a book

Raina will now say a few words about the
Future of India, which promises to be hopeful
and bright.

Everything in this world “moves rhythmi¬
cally/* and the law of periodicity governs all
phenomena. In accord with this law should
move even the Sun or star of Prosperity, There
was a time when the Sun of wisdom and
wealth shone at the zenith of glory in India.
As seen through the eyes of History, this
luminary, like other heavenly bodies, began
gradually to march westward and westward.
It passed over Persia, Assyria, and further west,
Egypt saw it shining overhead. Next came
the turn of Greece. After that Rome enjoyed
the noon of glory. Then Germany, France,
and Spain were duly waked up by the Light,

At last England began to receive the
dazzling splendour of the Sun of prosperity,

62

rN WOODS OF GOD-REALIZATION

Westward, ho ! travels the sun and brings
America to the high swing of Fortune. In the
United States, the Light spread in the usual
course travelling from New York (or “the
East” ) westward and westward till it reached
California (or “the West”), When it was day
in India, nobody knew America. Now that it
is day in America, the night of poverty and
pain is hovering over India. Bat, no; the Sun
seems already crossing over the Pacific Ocean,
and Japan bids fair to be among the foremost
powers of the world, and if the Laws of Nature
are to be trusted, the sun of wealth and wisdom !
must complete his Revolution and shine once
more on India with redoubled splendour. \

Amen I

Reviewing the past history of India we
find, as in the case of any other country, an
ultimate internal cause of India’s night to be ■
no other than Exdusivism, “How glorious is
the broad daylight in this room (fndia)! Oh !
it is mine—mine ! Let it belong to me alone.”

So saying we practically pulled down the
curtains, shut the doors, closed the window;
and in the very attempt to monopolize the

THE FUTURE OF INDIA

light of Ind created darkness. God is no
respecter of persons, nor is fortune geographical.
We ceased to incorporate in our lives the
divine truth of One-ness-fccliog (TaMvam-asi);
we were divided and weakened. The great
wrong which the leaders of the nation commit*
ted was to lay more stress on their self seeking
rights than on their self-denying duties to their
children—the lower classes, Be that as it may,
by the very necessity of the situation, matters
are taking a most hopeful turn. Those who
sleep well, wake well. India has slept long
enough. Most surely,' though slowly, the
lethargy is breaking; and most surely, though
slowly, Conservatism is playing liberal to adapt
it.self to the altered conditions.

The Principle of progress demands differen¬
tiation of form and function but intcgralion
of spirit and feeling. The Hindu caste-system
was due to national advancement expressing
itself beautifully in organised division of
labour and occupation and the union of spirit
and heart. But in course of time, the form
came to be exalted above the spirit, the natural
order was reversed; evolution gave room to

64 IN WOODS OF GoD REALIZATION

dissolution, and there we had division of love
(spirit) and mixing up of labour (occupation),
Members of one caste often took up the
occupations of other castes, and yet the ancient
caste feelings kept the hearts even more
estrange than before, The abnormal develop¬
ment of skin-consciousness (caste-prejudices)
buried the real Self (AtmOy God) under a
heap of transitory names, forms and limita¬
tions, The Shruti (Yedic wisdom concerning the
Eternal Self) was practically made a dead letter,
and Smriii ( Law-codes dealing with ancient
customs and affairs) wa$ made the tyrant’s
staff. The latter dominated oyer the spirit.
Some one says, “Grammar is the grave of
language.” Yes, try to save the grammar,
keep it invariable, and thereby the language
will be dead. Just so the rigidity of laws, customs
and karma-kand saps the vitality of a nation.
Upto a time the laws and rules are helpful
like the husk for the protection and preserva¬
tion of the seed, but if not changed after a while,
they become the choking prison impeding all
growth. Bear in mind, dear people, the laws
and Smsitk arc for you, you are not for the

THE FUTURE OF INDIA.

65

laws and Sinritis, Spread universally the teach¬
ings of eternal Shruti, but adapt your Smritis
to the needs of the day. Let the heritance of
Smritis belong to you and not you to the
heritance. The rivers have changed their beds
in India, the snow-lines are shifted, forests are
replaced by cultivated fields, the face of the
country is altered, government changed,
language changed, colours of the inhabitants
changed, yet in this inconstant, transient world
ye seek to perpetuate the rules and customs
of the past which is no more \ Sad, indeed,
is the state of one who is all the time looking
behind while he wants to walk forward. Such
an one must stumble at every step.

Life evolves on the principles of heredity
and adaptation. The law of heredity reigns
supreme in the lower kingdoms, It is the
predominance of the principle of adaptation
or education that distinguishes man from the
animals and the plants. The pretty little baby
is just aS unintelligent and silly as the infant
puppy; nay, the puppy or polly is often more
intelligent than the little Adam. But the
difference lies-in this, that whereis the litt/e

66 IN WOODS OF God-realization

dog or parrot has at the time of birth inherited
almost all it required for its perfection, the
child will or can through adaptation and
education bring the whole world under his sway.

My beloved Hindus ! By aversion to change
or adaptation, laying too much emphasis on
the old customs and heredity, pray, degrade'
not yourselves below the level of man.

You live in time as well as space. You
are descended from the ancient Rishis of India,
but you live not in their age now, do you?
Steam-engine, Steam-ship, telegraph, etc. are
at you; you can no longer shut yourselves off
from the present world; your stniggle is with
the twentieth century scientists, artists and
workmen of Europe and America; you can
not escape it, and if you observe carefully, you
will see that you cannot survive except by
making yourselves fit to live in the altrered
environment of this age. If you are not
willing and ready to assimilate the New Light
which is also the old, old light of your own
land, go and live in Pitriloka with your
forefathers. Why tarry here ! Good-bye I

Rama does not mean that you should be

THE FVtVKl OF INDIA

(57

dcnati on alized. A plant assi m ilate j the o u tside
air, water, manure and earth; but docs it by
timt turn into the air, water or the earth ? No.
Similarly should you, by absorbing and
digesting the. outside materials, develop and
flourish with the original life of Sliruti still
beating in your breast and bosom.

The object of Education should be to
enable us to utilize the resources of the country.
Proper education should enable the people to
make the land more fertile, the mines more
productive, the trade more flourishing, the
bodies more active, the minds more original,
the hearts more pure, the industries more
varied, and the nation more united. The
capability of quoting big long texts to show off
our learning, nonsensical hair-splitting to
torture the sense of passages in ancient
scriptures, the study of subjects which wc
never have to use in life, is not education,
The taking in of knowledge which v/e cannot
carry out in practice, is spiritual constipation
or mental dyspepsia,

It is a matter of satisfaction that, in spite of
all surface discouragements and bitter but

IN WOODS OF OOD-RRALI2ATION

lifeless opposition, steadily and surely the
Hindus are acquiring proper education, show¬
ing necessary adaptation; the social laws of
past age are becoming less stringent, and the
caste system is resuming its more natural
proportions. Instead of being scared by
Western Science, the Hindus today welcome
her as the greatest ally to their own Brahma-
Vidya (Shruti).

As to Hindu marriage, the different
communities, often headed by the most
orthodox and learned Pandits, are enacting
social laws to increase the age of marriage; and
nowand then suitable intermarriages are also
tolerated.

Apparently the question of food has gained
such undue dimensions amongst the Hindus
that some have nicknamed our religion as no
more than “kitchen-religion.” But, in spite of
all ouc fuss, our energy on the point has been
misdirected and dreadfully wasted, We never
examined scientifically what to eat and how
to eat. As you eat, so will your acts and
thoughts be. You cannot get out of a machine
what is not put into it. It Is silly to expect

THE FJTURK OF INDIA

i59

muscular or brain work from persons who
never take any food for the muscles or the
brain. From vegetables, grains and fruits we
could easily make a proper selection to supply
us with the necessary amount of nitrates and
phosphates to keep up high mental and
physical activity. Is it not a pity that we
prize ghee so much which contains not a
particle of food for brain or muscle, and we
despise barley, such an excellent food for
students ? Pepper, condiments and medicines
undermine the system, pervert oui natural
tastes, invite all sorts of weakness, disease and
death. Carbonates, like butter, sugar and
starch, which serve only as fuel to the lungs
and supply no nutrition for the muscle or the
brain, are valued out of all proportion. The
consequence is that lethargy, drowsiness and
exhaustion become inevitable, Let Jnanam
(Science, knowledge) guide our eating (Annam)!

The Sadhus of India are a unique pheno¬
menon peculiar to this country. As a green
mantle gathers over standing water, so have
Sadhus collected over India, full fifty-two lacs
by this time. Some of them are indeed beautiful

70 IV WOODS OP GoD-RCAtlZATION

lotuses—the glory of the lake! But a vast
majority are unhealthy scum, Let the water
begin to flow. let there be marching life in the
people, the scum will soon be carried off.
Sadhus were the natural outcome of the past
dark ages of Indian History. But now-a-days the
general spirit of reform, in-as-much as it is
changing the feelings and tastes of the house¬
holders, is affecting the Sadhus also. There are
springing up Sadhus, who instead of remaining
as suckers and parasites to the tree of Nationa¬
lity, are anxious to make of their body and
mind humble manure for the tree, if nothing more.

The sense of the dignity of labour, the
religion of unselfish activity, so long orally
repeated by millions of the C/i/o-sludents. is at
last being more or less realized in practice in
the land of Krishna.

“And live in action ! Labour I
Make thine acts thy piety 1
Casting all Self aside I

Contemning gain and merit I
Equable in good or evil}

Equability is Yoga, piety

THE FUTURE OF INDIA

71

Deep devolioa aod keen discriroinatiou h
observable among some of the laity as well
as liie Sadhus. And any one who is duly
acquainted with the external and internal,
ancient and modern, situations of India, can see
witliout difficulty that the future religion of
educated India must be—

Practical Vedanta

OR

Ren uncia 1 lon^througk Lo ve- in A ction.

True action is not separable from true love
and true wisdom. The religion of Shruti
(Practical Vedanta) makes every act, feeliog,
and thought of our life a yajna, an offering to
the devas^

I>eya in the Vedantic language means the
power-giving life and light to the different
faculties; and the deva or devata of a faculty,
ifidriya or sense, implies that faculty, indriya
or sense taken coswically. (Cf. Adhyattnlk
and Adhiduivik). The deyata of chaksku (or
sight) is the sight of all beings, called Adilya
and only symbolized by the material Sun or the
world's eye. The devata of hands is the power
in all hands and is named Indra. The devata

12 IN WOODS OF GOD-REALIZATION

of feet is the power in all feet styled Vi^ihnu,
and so on. Thus iiutyajna or sacrifice to the
devas means offering or dedicating one’s own
individual faculties and senses to the
corresponding cosmic powers, Offering to Indra
would mean working for the good of all hands
in the land, Offering to Aditya would mean
reaiizlog the presence of God in all eyes ,
honouring and respecting all eyes; offending no
eyes by unworthy conduct; presenting smiles,
blessings, love and kindness to whatsoever
eyes may turn upon you; and offering your
eyes to the All-Sight with such a devotion that
the egoistic claim being entirely given up, the
All-Light Himself may shine through your
eyes. Sacrifice to Brihaspad is dedicating my
intellect (thoughts) to all the intellects in the
land or thinking for the good of the land as
if myself were none else than my countrymen,
merging my interests in the interests of the
people and exulting in their joy.

In short, yajna implies realizing in active
practice ‘my neighbour to be my own self.'
‘feeling myself as one or identical with all,'
‘losing my little self to become the Self of all.’

THE FUTUM OF INDIA .

73

This is crucifixion of the selfishness, aad this
is resurrectlott of the All Self. Oue aspect of
it is usually styled bhoktl^TiA the other is
called Jnana.

O All, { OM I )—

Take my life and let it be
Humbly offeree, All? to Thee.

Take my bands and let them be
Working serving Thee, yea ! Theo.

Take my heart and let it be
Fall saturated, Lord, with Thee.

Take my eyes and let them be

Intoxiciated, God, with Thee*

Take this mind and Jet it be
' Ail day long a slitine for Thee.

This dedication being thoroughly, accom¬
plished, one realizes the blissful significance-
of Tat-tvarrHisi { “That Thou Art” ).

Do you wish to be a patriot 7 Tune your¬
self in Ibve with your country and the people.
Feel your unity with them, Let not even the
^idow of yoiir present personality be the thin
glass partition between' you and your people.
Be a geouine spiritual soldier laying down yourf.

74 IN WOODS OP GOD REALIZATION

personal life in the interests of the land.
Abnegating the little ego and having thus
become the whole of the country, feel anything,
your country will feel with you. March, your
country will follow. Feel health, your people
will be healthy. Your strength will begin to
pulsate in their nerves. Let me feel I am
India—the whole of India. The land of India
is my own body. The Comorin is my feet, the
Himalayas my head. From my hair flows the
Ganges, from my head come the Brahmaputra
and the Indus. The Vindhyachals are girt
round my loins. The Coromandel is my right
and the Malabar my left leg. I am the whole
of India, and its east and west are my arms,
and I spread them in a straight line to embrace
humanity. I am universal in my love. Ah i
such is the posture of my body. It is standing
and gazing at infinite space; but my inner
spirit is the Soul of all. When I walk, I feel
it is India walking. When I breathe, I feel it
is India speaking. When I speak, I feel it
is India breathing. I am India, I am Shankara,

I am Siva. This is the highest realization of
pahpiotism, and this is Practical Vedanta.

THE TimJRE OF INDIA

75

Peace like a river flows to me,
peace as an ocean rolls in me,

Peace like the Ganges flows,

It flows from all my hair and toes.

Through the arched door
Of eyebrows I pour.

And sit in the heaven of heart,

There well do I ride
In glory, and guide.

And no one can leave me and pact.

Merry wedlock, union.

On earth or in heaven,
la a dim foreshadowing symbol
Of my perfect embrace
Of the whole human race,

And my clasp so firm and nimble.

As the golden lance
Of the sun’s sharp glance,

I pierce the hearts of flowers.

As the silvery ray
Of the full moon gay,

1 hook up the sea to my bowers.

m WOODS OF OOD-RIALIZATION

0 Lightning ! 0 Light!

0 thought, quick and bright I
Comet l^t U5 run a race.

Avaunt! Avaunt I FJy ! Fly I
But you can*t
With me even keep pace.

0 Earths and Waters,

My eons and daughters
0 Flora and Fauna I
All .limitations Hinging
Break forth into singing
Hosanna ! Hosanna !

OM I OM II OM 111 .

THE ANCIENT SPIRITUALISM OF INDIA

Lecture delivered on July, 28,1904

Beloved in the shape of ladies & gentlemen:

When I first came to America, I landed at
Seattle. I was received by the Spiritualists.
They gave me the first welcome to this blessed
land. I have among these Spiritualists in Seattle
some of toy most beloved, sweetest friends. In
Portland, Oregon, again the Spiritualists
arranged for my lectures; and also in South
America I have met among these Spiritualists the
sweetest souls I have ever known. My opinion
about the Spiritualists of America is that they
are among the most liberal and broad minded,
most sympathetic and true, real Christian souls.
I am delighted to be here among my own people
once more. I am about to leave America now,
and here I have an opportunity to address once
more the people who welcomed me to this land,
And here we are all brethren, ray dear
heathens. Heathen is one who lives on the
heath, and as we are living in the country now*.

78 IN WOODS OF GOD-REALIZATION

under the free canopy of heavens, of the trees
and clouds, so we are once more heathens,
brethren, I am happy to address my heathen
brethren. I will Ulk to you firstof “The Ancient
Spiritualism of India,” and will then pass on to
another subject.

The Ancient Spiritualism of India is
apparently not something like the organized
spiritualistic societies of this land. And yet we
read in the ancient Scriptures allusions and
references, over and over again, to clairvoyant
powers.

1 am working, reading, writing and dictating
under the possession of what is known in India
as Divya Drishti, which means the vision of
.light. You have heard a great deal about
Bha^wat Gita. This was spoken by a man,
Sanjaya. In the very beginning of Bhagwai Gita,
you hear the name of Sanjaya. This Sanjaya
was. a person not on the battle-field where
Bhagwat Gita was recited before Arjuna. He
was at a distance of about two hundred miles
from the balUe-field. So his preceptor blesses
him with this power, known as Vivya Drishti.
Staying at a distance of two hundred miles, he

THE ANCIENT SPIRITUALISM OF INDIA 79

goes on citing everything that was passing in
the battie-iicld, and among the doings of the
battle was the Chanting of the songs known as
Bhagwat Oita. You might remember there was
a case of some of the sayings, doings and
writings of what ace called ‘mediums’ in this
land. One of the greatest books, the most
wonderlUl according to me, ever written under
the Sun, is ‘Yoga Vashishtha* which nobody on
the Earth can read without escaping God*
consciousness, nobody can read it through
without becoming one with the all. Tlut book
was written under similar circumstances. Again,
one of the greatest books in India, known as
the Ramayofi, was written by Valmika several
hundred years before the actual incidents took
place. Such are the accounts given about the
writings of some of the books in India.

Then again, in the Mahabharaidj the greatest
book of the world, consisting of four hundred
thousand verses, the story is given of a queen
who, in a vision, sees the most beautiful prince
and falls in love with him. She was so deep in
love with him that her body, under the severe
passion of love, fell sick, Her father sends

80

IN WOODS OF GOD“REAL!ZATlON

for all sorts of doctors and pliysiaans. but
to no avail. At last somebody discovers that
her disease is the blessed disease of love. The
Prime Minister of the king comes up, puts his
hand upon her pulse, and orders one of the
greatest painters to come up and paint the
pictures of all the beautifal kings in India.
This painter was a woman. This giv^ you
some idea of the ability of women in India and
the position they occupied in that land. This
woman-painter comes up, and on a board
against the wall, she draws picture after picture
of the great kings that lived in India those days.
This Prime Minister is watching the beating
of the pulse of this princess. The paintress
draws a picture of Shri Krishna. Then her pulse
beats faster, and the Prime Minister stops short.
He thinks that here is the man perhaps whom
she had seen in her vision. But he sees that
the pulse dose not beat fast enough, and orders
the painter to go on painting pictures. Then
die paints the picture of the youngest son of
Krishna, and when that picture is painted, lo,
not only to say nothing about the pulse, but
her whole heart begins to heave and beat up to,

THB ANCIENT SPlRIUjAtlsM OF INDIA 81

the very earth, as it were. Then the Prime
Minister comes to the conclusion, “Here-is the
man who will drive away her sadness.” This
we believe to be no siory but historical fact.

As to this paintress, what about her? Did
she see all the kings and princes of the land?
No! She was again under what we call Divya
Drishti, under that higher vibration with the'
All, so much so that the book, of Nature
remained no longer a sealed book, but every
thing was an open book to her. I might
multiply as many incidents of this kind as you
please, might give you example after example.
Suffice it to say that there as a vision and sight,
rather there is an inner light which makes you
possessed of all the knowledge in this world.

The Vedanta Philosophy as popularized by
very beautiful illustrations. Ut me give you an
illustration to distinguish this inner supreme
spiritual vision from that kind of light which
you i mbibe from the study of books and
through the medium of Professors in the
Universities.

' They say, at one time a prince was going tC

^ohe of his most glorious palaces painted ill

82 ^ IN WOODS OF GOD-REACIZATION

a marvellous way, Many painters came hoping
that the prince would select the very best
painter for the job. He gave them an exami¬
nation. Two walls stood side by side parallel
to each other, and two painters were emplo¬
yed to paint these walls. Curtains were
hanging on these walls so that the work of
one painter could not be seen by the other.
About two weeks were allowed to them to finish
their work. One of the painters reproduced
on the wall all the scenes of the Mahabharata,
the grand book of the world, and his work was
most marvellous and glorious indeed. As to
the other painter, I will not tell you yet what
he was doing. Two weeks pds.sed, and the
king with his retinue came to the scene, and
the curtain was lifted from the work of the
first painter, and there were thousands and
thousands of pictures upon the wall. Everybody
who looked at the wall was wonder-struck. They
stood, all surprised, in a most wonder-struck
mood. How glorious was the work ! All the
spectators cried out, “Give him the reward,
select him for the highest work which you want
to be done! Let him be the victor, let him be.

THE ANCIENT SPIRITUALISM OF INDIA

rewarded V* Then the kmg ordered the other
mao to-lift up his curtain. When the curtain
was lifted, all the people stood there with bated
breath, their lips half open, their breathing
suspended, and their eyes wide open with
amazement. They could not utter a word;
they were pictures of amazement and surprise.
Why? What had this second man done?
Everything on the wall of the first man was
inscribed on the wall of the second man, with
this difference that while the first man’s
painting were relatively rough and rugged
and uncouth, the second man’s paintings were
80 smooth, neat and clean, and so soft and
polished, that even a fly in its attempt to sit
upon the wall would slip away. So beautiful
was the work ! And further, they saw that in
the second man’s paintings there was a curious

beauty of the paintings, which were inscribed

within three yards of the wall. How had this
work been done ? The second man bad been
polishing, purifying and smoothing his wall to
such an extent that he made it transparent, and
it became a veritable mirror, a looking-glass.
LUce a looking-glass, it took in all that the first

84

IN WOODS OP G0D*BBAU2ATI0N.

man had done, but everything was painted with¬
in it. You know that the picture within a
mirror reflect within it as far as the object is
without it.

Thus there are two ways of acquiring
knowledge. One is the cramming and outside
painting work, taking in picture after picture,
and idea after idea, and pumping into the brain
thoughts and ideas of all varieties,—Geology,
Astrology, Theology, Philolpgy, and all sorts of
Ontologies and Nonpracticologies. This is^one
way of acquiring knowledge. I don’t mean to
say that you cannot acquire knowledge that
way. You can, just as that man painted the
wall by all sorts of colours used on the surface.
But there is, blessed ones, another way of
mastering the knowledge of the world. It is a
purifying process. It is not stuffing in, but tak¬
ing away and using only the thoughts which
are needful. It is making your breast beating
with the All. As Emerson says,

“Have thine wiih nature’s having breast, '
And all is clear from cast to west'’

There is that method of realizing ray
oneness with the All. Walt WhitiJlan says,

THE rANCIENT SPHOTUALISM OP INDIA. ;

‘‘Unless .you feel all, you cannot know all.”

It is feeling all..

All the* original workers, all the men of
genius, wherefrom did they get their
knowledge ? We have ever so many Professors
of Theology, Doctors of Divinity, Reverends,
Ministers in the Churches, who have devoted
their lifetime to the study of tomes filling
large libraries. And yet how many of them
deliver original sermons like the sweet little
sermons that came from the blessed lips of
sweet Jesus. .We have ever so many writers
and speakers, but dear ones, out of all the
speeches delivered in America, no speech was
so powerful as the speech of the seven words :
You all know that speech of seven words ;
<'Give me liberty or give me death I’’ There
are ever so many Professors of Mathematics, ^
Doctors of .Philosophy^ but how many of them
did! produce va:* wofk like the -single little .
“Principia” of Newton. Wherefrom did he.
g^l .all this knowledge ? . The knowledge of
Mathematics wOiioh,he derived from , books was
nffC^asv.lauch as ^ the, kno-wledge which he. ^
perayedrint^ thd^orldv; He got it from some.,*

85 IN WOODS OF GoD-REALIZATION

higher source. Shakespeare^s books are read
to-day in the Uoiversities by the students in
the Master of Arts class. This poor Shakespeare
was not a graduate of any University, yet he
wrote books which the people must read before
they graduate from the Universities. The
great Scientists of to-day, Herbert Spencer,
was not a Graduate of any University.
Somebody asked him if he was an omnivorous
reader. “No, Sir; if I were as big a reader
as others, I would have been as big an
ignoramus as others/’ Now we see that these
original workers, these people who advanced
the march of Science, these people derived
their original ideas and thoughts evidently not
from the books written before them. If it
were copied from other books, it could not be
original at all. Then here comes the question,
wherefrom does original knowledge come?
Wherefrom does this originality derive its
origin ?

Dear blessed ones, dear sweet ones, hear,
consciously, or unconsciously, mark these words,
it is coming into unison, becoming one with
what is called the Heaven within; the Origin

THE ANCIENT SPIRITUALISM OP INDIA 87

of all life within, the Origm of all light within.
There, there is the source. The origin of ail
light, of all life, Heaven of heavens, is your
real Self, the true Self. Let us for a second
enter into silence with this thought that all life,
all light is within me, all is within me.

Now I shall tell you the method which the
sages of India adopted to acquire that Ood-
vision. In India it is said that all the Vedas
were written by God, by Jdshis. It means that
the people who wrote these Vedas wrote them
while this body-consciousness or this egoistic
consciousness, the personal consciousness, was
entirely absent, So the people from whom
these Vedas sprang are called Rishis. But
they are not the authors. The word Rishi
merely means the seer of divine light, the seer
of divine truth. Again, in other parts of the
Hindu Scriptures, it is stated that all the
Vedas (the Veda is the Hindu Bible ) are like
a tree which sprang from the seed known as
OM, OM, OM. This is called the seed from
which the tree of the Vedas sprang- How
to reconcile this idea with the other, that
Vedas came from the people who did not write

88

IN WOODS OF OOD-REALIZATIDN

them, but they sprang, spontaneously as light
emanates from a lamp or fragrance proceeds
from a rose ? The two ideas are reconciled
in this way that those people who want to get
a higher inspiration, those people who want
to acquire that God-vision, who want to rise
above the egoistic, personal, little, limited,
local consciousness of self, they get the
inspiration and light through the chant of
OM, OM.

Now it Is not the mere chant by the throat,
it is something else also. While the lips and
the throat chant physically, the mind chants
it intellectually, and the feelings chant it in a
language of higher emotions. Thus the three¬
fold chant of this sacred syllable brings you
to that unison and ^oneness with the All, the
Light. This was the method which they
adopted. This requires of me.to lay before you
the significance and meaning of the Afantrom
6 m. I might take 'that up some other day. ^
But before I explain to you the significance and.
meaning of the Mqtttram OM, I must tell you'
why this Mantram has inspiration or God-con* ’
scipusne$5, dependent upoix these little sounds. '

THE ANCIENT SPIRTTUALTSM OF INDIA 89

Is God a respecter of words ?T]iis is the
question that comes to the mind of everybody
I Will show you that this OM is the most
natural and real name of the Holy of Holies
and for the ^LL. This is a name not belonging
to any particular language. If the Hindus took
it up, it doss not mean that it belongs to the
Sanskrit language. It is Nature’s name. Nature’s
word, it is Nature’s syllable. Nature’s maniram,
and some people would like to discard it
because it comes from Sanskrit, from the
Hindus. You know that orthodoxy means my
doxy, and your doxy is heterodoxy: so the
orthodox are prone to rqect everything that
does not come in the name of their label.
So you need not reject it thinking that it comes
from the Sanskrit people. In Sanskrit, this word
OM is not subjected to the same conjugation or
inflection or other grammatical manipulations
to which all other Sanskrit words are subjected.
So it is not a Sanskrit word. It is a genuine word
by itself, the word of Nature. The Hindus took
it up. Every child is born with this sound.
What is the very first sound which a child
utters ? It is either, am, urn, om, or ma. Now

90 JK WOODS OF <30D“REAUZATf0N

oh, ah. uha, these three elemental sounds com¬
pose OM. In the French language, when the
sound ok and ah come together, they coalesce
together into ak. Similarly, when the sounds
come together in Sanskrit, they coalesce. So
the sounds oh and ah compose it, and every
child of every nation is born with these sounds
which he brings from the other world. We
see again when a man is sick, what is the
sound in which he seeks relief? He says
uhn, vhi, yhn, therein he finds relief. A sick
man, man suffering from excruciating pain,
■finds in this sound his OM. Wherever in
this world children are happy, very happy
in any place, their ecstacy finds expression
in the ejaculation of the sound Om. There
it is. This is the sound which stands for that
State of your mind in which you are standing
above or beyond this little, local, egoistic,
personal, small, limited consciousness. Wheri-
cver you rise above the local consciousness,
according to which you feel yourself to be
limited within the short area of about five or
six feet, on the north having a head covered
sometimes with a hat or turban, and on the

THE ANCIENT SPIRITUALISM OF U*)DIA 91

south a pair of shoes, when you rise above
this little egoistic consciousness, the natural
sound of the mcmtram OM finds expressioa
through you. We see again that in all the
languages of the world OM occupies a very
prominent place. Omniscient begins with
OM, then the nasal sound; omnipresent,
omnipotent, they are the sweetest and highest
names for God—Omniscient, Omnipotent,
Omnipresent, and they begin with the natural
name for God—Om. In your prayers, when
you come to that point when all speech stops,
you say the world omen; in Arabic we say
amin: in Persian we say omin; so in
Hindustani or English—it is amen; or oinin.
We see it in the principal languages of the
.civilized peoples in the prayers, when they
come to that point where all speech stops, the
silence that speaks when you enter into that
blessed silence, which the Hindus have
expressed in the phrase:

^ ft93?^

Translated, this means “Wherefrom all
•speech and all thought turn back like a hall,
^ung against the wall, jumps back.” When

92 IN WOODS OF GOD-RBALIZATION

you read! that state, it is the word Amen
that introduces you into the whole world.
Amen is only a distorted expression of Om, Om^
Om. So Om is the most natural name for God,
the most natural name for the Holy of Holies,
Further, did you ever notice the sound which
accompanies your breath, your respiration ?
We will see just now,—it is so-ahm so-ahm.
Breathe alone and breathe aloud, you will see
that so-ahm is the sound of your breath. In
the Sanskrit language so-ahm has a meaning;
and remember please, if it has a meaning in
the Sanskrit language, the English language
ought to adopt it. Philology proves that
English, French, Scandinavian, Russian,
Greek, and Persian, these languages are all
the daughters of the Sanskrit language, So
blessed ones, Sanskrit is the mother of your
English language. So if it belongs to the
mother, why should not the daughter take it?
So. in the Sanskrit language so-ahm has a
meaning, So means ‘that’, and ahm means ‘ 1 *
am. I am that. Connected with that is a
particular way of breathing. In So-ahni^ the
. sound of your breath, there are two consonants,

TUB ANaEMT SPIRITUALISM OF INDIA 93

and the rest are independent sounds. Drop
out ^s\ the first consonant, and the second,
the rest becomes OM. So we see that the breath
of man or the inner living being in this
world, consists of two independent sounds
on which the others are dependent. Take
away the dependant or consonant sounds,
then the sou) or independent life in your breath
is OM. Thus the life in your breath is OM. The
sound which is the soul of your breath is OM.
This is then the most natural name for the
Heaven within, the God, Supreme Spirit, that
enlightens all spirits and all souls; the Soul
of all souls, the Life of all lives is OM.

i could further explain to you the scientific
reason for the higher vibration and the higher
state which is brought about by the chanting of
Om.

Sounds are of two kinds, you all know. Your
Grammars call them the articulate and the
inarticulate. In Sanskrit we have the articulate,
that is, the sound which can be recited in
letters of the alphabet, and the other sound is
the inarticulate or intonation. The alphabetical
and the intonational are the two varieties of

94 IN WOODS OF GOD-REALIZATION

sounds. The alphabetical or articulate sounds
are concerned with the topics which deal with
the knowledge of the head, and the intonational
sounds are those which deal, in the language,
of the piesent-day psychologists, with what
is called the subjective mind, o** the heart, the
feelings. We see that the articulate sounds
can have meaning in a limited class. Here
I am talking to you in the English language.
To those who do not know English all this
talk will be Greek. So those who have been
trained, in the same artificial way in which
the people learning a particular language have
been trained, can understand me when I talk
English. Nobody else will. Here comes a
man who speaks to me in Persian or Russian,
or in Sanskrit, you do not understand him,
He does not know English, and begins to
cry, Then you all understand him immediate¬
ly, You know that he is in need, that he
is distressed. There comes a man who tells
you something in Sauskrit, Persian, Japanese;
you do not understand him. He begins
to laugh and laugh and you understand.
So this crying, this laughter, was it the

THB ANCIENT SPIRITUALISM OF INDIA. 95

intonaiional or alphabetical sound ? It was the
intonational sound and did its work. The baby
cannot speak to you in your language, but they
say the language of love is understood every-
where. Here comes a cat and you want to
drive it away. You speak to it in Persian,
Sanskrit* Arabic, English, it does not under¬
stand; but clap your hands and off she goes.
There it was the intonational sound; it was
not the alphabetical. Jt did its work
immediately. So we see that the intonational
language is universal, the language concserning
the mediums which are deeper down than the
head. The philosophers of the seventeenth and
nineteenth centuries have been placing the
ruling centre of man in the brain somewhere.
But to-day the mistake of these philosophers
has been discovered, and once more the
philosophical world has come to realize that it
is in the gangleonic centre of the heart. There
lies the ruling seat of man. So we say that
the intonational language comes from some¬
where deeper down than the head or the
intellect. 1 heard a lady say, “You cannot
preach to me in your Churches, but you can

96 fN WOODS OP OOD-RBALIZATION

sing to me there/’ You will aU agree that
you enjoy the music in the Churches more than
the sermons. How is that ? You are all sad,
and somebody begins to play upon the piano,
and brings out the harmony of the vibrations,
and you are immediately at rest, i have a
friend in East Aurora. In his establishment,
when the workmen are a little out of gear, and
there is discord and lack of harmony, he stops
the work immediately, and asks somebody to
play upon the piano, and in half an-hour
everything is set aright. You know what a
charm music has upon people. Some French¬
men in the Fran CO-Prussian War were treated
with martial music, and all of them became
homesick. The officers received application
upon application for leave of absence. All
were liomesick and could not fight. You
know how Music inspires people in battle.
You have heard of the city of Troy coming
out of the music of Apollo; out of his Music
the city appeared, You all know about those
sirens who lived on an island in the sea, and
the passers by who travelled on the sea, no
sooner did they hear that music than they were

THE ANCfBNT SPIRITUALTSM OF INDIA. 97

drawn to that cruel island where they knew
that the sirens had to make merry with them
for three days, and then they would be cut and
eaten up. Yet they could not resist. Such is
Music,

This shows the temptations of this world.
People know that when temptations get the
upperhand, they will make merry for three days
and then be eaten up. Yet they cannot resist,
It is said that when Orpheus sang, the brooks
and running streams stopped to listen to him,
and even the animals. On one side stood a
lion, and on the other a cow; on the one side
a sheep and on the other a wolf; but all forgot
themselves in that harmony. You know about
that St. Cecilia who brought an angel down
to the Earth. And you may have heard that
in “Alexander’s Feast*’ hearing about * the
musician who brought Alexander in rapport
with the divine, he said,

“He raised the mortal to the skies,

And she (Sr. Cecilia) brought an angel down ”
Consequently this musician was higher than
St. Cecilia. What is Music ? Is it alphabetical
or intonational ? Intonational, evidently. What

98

IN WOODS OF GOD-REALIZATION.

a wonderful effect it has ? Science can prove
why particular sounds should have particular
effects, and even if Science cannot prove it, the
fact is a fact that intonation has a marvellous
effect in producing wonderful results. In your
mind it remains a fact.

So 1 say that intonation is connected with
the chant of Ora, and experience has proved
that it has a marvellous effect in bringing
your soul at one with the soul of the ALL.
It has a marvellous effect. If Science cannot
prove it today, let it grow, and a little later it
will be able to explain it. In the meantime
the fact will remain a fact, So on the
basis of this experience of the ages, I mean
personal experiences, I Jay before you this,
the treasure of the Vedic philosophy. Thus
it is that the Hindus reached the higher vision
of clairvoyancci of the inner, spiritual light.

PEACE LIKE A RIVER FLOWS TO ME.

Peace like a river flows to me,

Peace as an ocean rolls in me?

Peace like the Ganges flows,

It flows from all my hair and toes.

0 fetch roe quick my wedding robes,

THE ANCIENT SPIRITUALISM OF INDIA 99

White robes of light, bright rays of gold.
Slip on, lol once for all, the veil to fJingl
Flow, flow, 0 wreaths, flow fair and free.
Plow, wreath of tears of joy, flow free,
What glorious aureole, wondrous ring.

O nectar of life I 0 magic wine.

To fill my pores of body and mindl
Come fish, come dogs, come all who please,
Come powers ol nature, bird and beast.
Drink deep my blood, my flesh do eat,

0 come, partake of martiage feast,

I dance, 1 dance with glee
In stars, in suns, in oceans free.

In moons and clouds, in winds I dancey
In will, emoiionsj mind I dance.

1 sing, I sing, I am symphony,
l^m boundless ocean of Harmony.

The 8abject^which perceives.

The object—'thing perceived,

,As waves in Me they double,

In Me the world's a bubble.

OM 1 0M!I OMlll

THE CIVILIZED WORLD^S SPIRITUAL
DEBT TO INDIA

Lecture delivered on July 29, J904.

While talking to students this morning, a
remark escaped these lips:—‘*1 never remember
that I was ever born. Indeed, I was never
born, and no power in the world can convince
me that I can ever die.” While addressing a
large congregation in India, I spoke on a
subject which smacked of political character.
Among the audience where judges, lawyers,
and people occupying very high positions
under the Government. After the talk they
came up and remonstrated, saying “Swami,
never deliver such a talk in future, because
there is a fear of your person being thrown
into prison or being taken to the scaffold.**
The answer from .Rama was, “Blessed ones,
I cap never play the part of Judas Iscariot
and sell the Christ of Truth for thirty pieces
of silver, for nobody can convince me that
there is a sword in this world sharp enough

WORLD’ SPIRITUAL DEBT TO INDIA 101

to cut my soul, or a weapon strong enough to
wound me, immortal Being, never born,
incapable of being put to death, the same yester¬
day, to-day, for ever, this is Me ! Why should
I compromise ?”

The remarks which you will hear you may
not be accustomed to hear so often and perhaps
they will sound strange, but as a debt to Truth
1 am bound to declare them.

Many stories are exant in this country
about India. The other day, after delivering
a talk in Minneapolis, a lady came up to
Rama and said, “Mr. Swami, don’t the ladies
itill throw their bodies to the crocodiles in the
Ganges ? ” I told her, “Blessed Divinity, 1
was also thrown into the Ganges, but like
.your fabled Jonah, I swam out." As a matter
of fact, I have been from the source of the river
Ganges to its entrance into the plains on foot.
Those of you who have had the pleasure of
walking with me know that its little body can
walk 40 miles a day. I tell you that roaming
along the banks of the Ganges from one end
,tO the other, I found that sacred river so clear,
pure and extremely rapid, awfully swift, that.

102 IN WOODS OF GOD REALIZATIOK.

in. the name of Science, no crocodiles or
alligators could ever live in it Alligators and
crocodiles live in muddy, turbid streams, and
no crocodile could be pointed out in that river.
Bless the sweet hearts of story-contractors \
Such are the reports current in this country
about India.

The other day I received a letter from
Seattle, Washington, written by a Hindu
implicated in a queer case. One night he
was going home from the rooms of a certain
Spiritual Society, and he took a car. A girl
took the same car as he did. They rode
together, and when she left the car, he also
left, because be lived in that neighbourhood.
After an hour a policeman came up and
arrested the student, and for six hours he
•remained in jail. The next morning he was
tried. The complaint which the girl lodged
against him was ‘'He looked at me with
those ‘piercing, black, spiritualistic eyes, and
I felt as if I was going to be hypnotized, and 1
was scared.'* Oh heavens, where should the
poor Hindus put their eyes before they come to
America ? Such are the notions about the

WOW-D’s spiritual debt to INDIA. 103

Hindus in some quarters of the country.

As to the bright side I might lay before
you. fact after fact, about the immense wealth
of ancient India. Reports were current in
Europe that in India bouses were made of
gold and streets of silver and such reports
about India made all Europe lose patience
and go after the wealth of India; and for
conquest of India, people came from all parts
of Europe. Some wanted to go by way of the
north-west passage, and came to India. Your
Columbus was at first in search of a new route
to India when he stumbled upon blessed
America. So India had a charm one day, even
so far as its material wealth is concerned. I
have simply to refer you to the accounts of
the Persian and Greek writers of the temples in
India. In one temple ten thousand servants
were employed, and the ceilings were set with
diamonds and rubies, If you want to have some
historical records to prove these statements
concerning the wealth of India, I refer you to
the speeches of Edmund Burke about Warrw
Hastings and Lord Clive.

1 might say a great deal about the

104 IN WOODS OF GOD-RBALIZATIOK

intellectual wealth of India. In India I have
seen a man performing most wonderful feats of
memory. About 50 or 60 persons were seated
in a room in a semi-circle about him. Each
person present was told to have before him
passages from any hook he might wish. Some
of them took passages from books written in
English, Arabic, Hindustani and so on. This
man was blind. Each one of the persons told
him the number of lines their passage contained.
Then in turn each one of the pities gave him
one line at a lime. The first man, let us say,
gave him the first line of bis passage which
consisted of 20 lines; the next gave the fifth
line of his passase of 13 lines, and so on. Then
came the second course when all the people
gave him one line again. Thus promiscuously
and irregularly the lines were given to this blind
prophet. Then in the 13th course, when he
reached the man who had announced that his
passage consisted of 13 lines, “Mr. so-and-so, the
number of lines of your passage are exhausted,"
and in his mind having arranged all these lines
in their correct order, he repeated the whole
. passage from beginning to end without a single

world’s spiritual debt to INDIA 105

mistake. So he went on completing and reciting
passages to the whole circle.

I might tell you of some of the psychological
researches. There was a certain Swatni who
visited India and who could throw himself
into a state of suspended consciousness for
five minutes. But in the Himalayas T have
met many Swamis who could throw themselves
into apparent death for six months. Here is
a case of resurrection after a period of
apparent death during six months. One of
these Swamis was put into a box and interred
into the ground, and after sixraontlishe was dug
out and by means of certain processes which
he had told the people to perform on his body,
became to life again. Just think of that, blessed
ones I A man came to life after three days
of seeming death, and almost all Europe
have pinned their name and faith to his
personality on the ground of resurrection
after three days. People resurrect in India
after six months of apparent death, and we
take it for what it is worth. This is not
spirituality, but it is a genuine physiological
and psycholo^cal process, a scientific process.

106 IN WOODS OF GOD-REALIZATION

If the present-day Doctors do not know
about it, they must grow io the knowledge of
their Science, We take it for what it is worth.

Here again I am moved to say a few
words about the negative side of the question
before I pass on to the positive side. The
negative side is this. The other day a gentle¬
man came up and said, “Don’t ,8wami, bother
us with your philosophy and religion. Is
not that antiquated T' As if truth could be
antiquated ! As if truth were changeable and
mutable! 1 said to him, “Brother, do you
know what is the cause of your prosperity
and of America and EuroptJ's progress to-day?”
I was moved to make this answer because
he said, ‘your religion is antiquated,’ Our
religion is Uving. is living! Our religion
lays stress on the positive side, whOe yours
lays stress on the negative side—‘Thou shalt
not’ I said, “Blessed one, let us examine
the cause of America’s prosperity, and what
Acnerica’s religion is.” I told him that his
religion was worn as a charm around the neck,
as an amulet. A boy wears an amulet and
attributes his successes to the charms of the

world’s spiritual debt to INDIA i07

amulet but bis failures he attributes to the
lack of his own exertions. So, blessed ones,
the real cause of vour prosperity and your
boasted civilization is something else. It is not
Christianity, or what I call Churchianity. Let
us examine the matter historically. We read
history, and we find that before this so-called
Chirstianity or Churchiaoity was introduced
into Europe, there were nations in existence
who were prosperous and civilized at least to
the same extent as America and Europe are
today, if not more so. Egypt had her civilization,
China had her civilization, and in some respects
the European art has not come up to the art
of ancient Egypt or China. Persia, Greece and
Rome had their civilization, not to say anything
of India. All these countries, all these nations
were civilized and they were heathens also.
If civilization and material prosperity always
went with Christianity, then, pray tell me how
at was that although Christianity was not yet
boro, these countries were civilized and
prosperous. Why? Again, we see Rome, the
greatest country in the world at one lime,
Rome, the most prosperous nation. If Rome

108 IN WOODS OP GOD-RBAUZATION

fell, what brought about the decline of the
RorneEntpire? It was the advent and introduction
of Christianity. Read Gibbon on that subject;
read any other standard historical work on
that subject. Greece was so prosperous and
happy before Christianity was introduced there.
V/hat is the Christian Greece of to day as
compared with the heathen Greece of those
good old times Again wc say. “Come, read
history.” In spite of facts and figures nobody
has the least right to attribute the prosperity
of America and Europe to Christianity or
Churchianity. For more than a thousand years
after the introduction of Christianity into
Europe, Europe was under the pitch-dark
shadow of what are called the Dark Ages, the
ages of indescribable gloom, superstition and
ignorance that ever visited the world. This is
what was the result of the introduction of

Christianity into Europe.

Some people say, “Look here, what has not
Christianity done ; Christianity is the greatest
civilizing factor in the world I” It is the civiliz¬
ing factor which must introduce Inquisitions,
the burning of witches and the presecuiion of

world's spiritual debt to INDIA. 109

scientific thinkers. Wherever Science wanted
to advance, there did Christianity come up
ready to choke it to death. Bruno was burnt
to death because of his scientific views, You
know how Christianity treated Ben Johnson
and Carlyle. Let us examine the real facts of
what has contributed to the prosperity of
America and Europe.

Blessed ones, it is not the helhfire preached
from the pulpits that has raised you. It is tbe
fire coming from the steam-engine, the
electricity, the printing presses, it is the ships
and railway systems,—it is these to which you
owe your prosperity and material elevation.
Says, Dr. Johnson of England, ‘‘If a boy tells
you that he peeped through this window, while
as a matter of fact he peeped through the other,
whip him V So I say to you, when you ascribe
to one thing what is really due to some other
cause, what do you deserve ? So tbe real cause
of your materia! advancement are these factors
which I have mentioned, these scientific
discoveries, these scientific inventions. No one
of these discoveries or inventions was made by
a Reverend Doctor or Minister of the Church.

ilO IW WOODS OF GOD-ft£AUZATION

Was James Watt, George Stephenson. Benjamin
Franklin, Thomas Edison, or anyone of those
folks a Reverend Doctor, a Missionary or
Minister 7 If anyone of these men had been
a preacher of the Gospel, then we might say
that the Gospel was the cause of your material
advancement, of your material prosperity. But
we see that the only discovery made by a
Minister was the discovery of gunpowder. The
only scientific discovery tliat ever came from
the blessed hands or the blessed brains of the
preachers of the Gospel was gunpowder.

You see that the cause of your prosperity
is not Churchianity or Christian dogmas. It is
not. Just as the cause of America and Burope^S
material prosperity is not the blessed religion
of America and Europe, so the cause of India’s
material downfall is not the Hindu religion.
I maintain the real cause of your prosperity
or that of any nation is true spirituality, and
true spirituality T always distinguish from the
forms, the dogmas, the creeds, the garments,
the drees in which it is presented. So I say
that the cause of America’s prosperity is true,
genuine spirituality, which is engendered and

world’s spiritual debt to INDIA. Ill

propagated in spite of the preaching from tho
pulpits and the usages encouraged by that
preaching. All of the “Thou shalts” and ^*Thou
shalf nets” have hindered and not aided your
growth, your spiritual growth. Kant calls
them the categorical imperatives, a statement
in the imperative mood, second person, All
such statements limit your freedom, tliey take
away your liberty.

Wherefrom did this true spirituality arise ?
Wherefrom, in the history of the world, sprang
this true spirituality ? That is what I have to
tell you. True spirituality is what we call
Vedanta, All the religions of this world arc
based upon a personality. Christianity hinges
around the name of Christ, Confucianism
around the name of Confucius, Buddhism
around the name of Buddha, Zoroastrianism
around the name of Zorodster,Mohammfidanisfn
around the name of Mohammed. The word
Vedanta means the ultimate Science, the
Science of the soul, aud it requires a man to
approach it in the same spirit in which you
approach a work on Chemistry. You don’t
read a work on Chemistry, taking it on the

112 IN WOODS OF GOD-REALIZATION.

authority of Chemists like Lavoisier, Boyle,
Reynolds. Davy and others. You take up a
work on Chemistry and analyse everything
yourself, I believe that water consists of
hydrogen and oxygen on the authority of my
own experiments, not on the authority of any¬
body else, The electrolysing of water shows that
to me. So a religion that is based on authority
is no religion. That alone is truth which is based
upon your own authority. With that under¬
standing I might recommend to you books upon
books on the subject to be read by you, to
be assimilated, to be chewed, masticated and
digested, ground and made your own. This is
the spirit in which I want you to approach the
word Vedanta. 1 don't mean that you should pin
your faith to Vedanta, I don’t want to prosely¬
tize anyone. But having made the meaning of
this word clear, I will say that this Vedanta,
true spirituality flows from the mighty Himala¬
yas, the mountains of the world. As the
magnificent streams, the beautiful rivers, the
monsoons flow from those heights, so the
genuine spirituality has flown from India.
Your European Orientalists say that the books

world’s spiritual debt to IMDIA 113

on these subjects were written about four
thousand years before Christ. And these people,
in their attempts to discover the origin of these
books, have been working under the heavy
weight of the superstition that the world was
created only four thousand years before Christ.
But I as a student of the Vedas, can furnish
you with internal evidence that these state¬
ments of those folks are wrong. I have been a
Professor of Higher Mathematics in a Univer¬
sity, 1 have been lecturing on dynamics,
analytical hydrostatics, astronomy, trigonome¬
try, and tlirough reading the Vedas I find
frequent references to the positions of the stars
and constellations in the heavens in those day$.
The marking of positious of Orion and other
constellations in those days is given in the
Vedas, and then making mathematical calcula¬
tions, 1 give you the internal evidence, scienific
and mathematical, of the fact that these Vedas
were written, at least some of them eight
thousand years before Christ. Shall we believe
in the evidence given by peace of convas, or
the evidence given directly by God through
the letters of the stars and mathematical

114 IN WOODS OF GOD-RBAUZATION

formulae? This is a vast subject, but I can, in
this short time, lay before you only the salient
points, some of the broad landmarks in the
whole scheme,

Have anyone of you read the accounts of
India given by the ancient Greeks ? About
four hundred years before Christ, the Greeks
began to visit India, History shows that, and
these Greeks have left accounts of their visits,
lhave read some of them. You will find in
those apeounts that in those days the people of
India were called the ideal sort of people. The
Greeks say that the Hindus never told a lie.
The women had perfect freedom with men;
they lived on terms of equality with men; and
they say grand, wonderful Universities, in the
mountains and forests, were prevalent all over
the country. They go on describing in glowing
terms the material wealth of the land, and
what is called faithlessness and impurity, they
say, was absolutely unknown in thif. land.
They describe something about the system of
philosophy of the people. They were much
charmed. Even to-day we find, among some of
the great works of ancient India books, written

WORLD’S SPIRrnJAL DEBT TO INDIA U5

by women. At one of the greatest Parliamenrs
of Religions held in India» where one of the
greatest philosophers of the world spoke, it was
a woman of India who presided. Some of the
grandest, greatest and most wonderful hymns
came from the blessed hearts of women in
India. T agree with Walt Whitman when he
says, “Truth is lirst conceived of woman.”

What brought about the downfall of all the
institutions in India ? What brought Idolatry
in India? Idolatry is not indigenous in the land
of India. To day the Christian folks tell you
that the people are idol worshippers. But in
the voluminous Vedic writings, in the
writings on Poetry, Grammar, Mathematics,
Architecture and Music in India, in none of
them I find the least reference or allusion to
idolatry. Wherefrom then did this idolatry
come in India ? It forms no part of the
religion of India. This idolatry in India came
through the Christians. People have not read
that page of history yet, but this investigation
of mine will come in printed form also. I
prove it from external as welt as internal
evidence that between the 4th and 5ih centuries

115 IN WOODS OF COD-REALIZATION

I

after Christ, some Roman Catholic Christians,
came over to India, and these Christians are
still present in India to-day. They are called
St.Thomas Christians living in the Southern part
of India. These Christians introduced idolatry.
Then from internal evidence T prove that the
greatest advocate of idolatry, Ramanuja, had
for his preceptor, one of these St. Thomas
Christians. The first statue before which
these men bowed I know bears no oriental
face. This shows, my blessed ones, that the
origin of idolatry is from what you call
Christianity. You took it there. The Mis.son-
aries come to India to-day denouncing idolatry,
pulling it down on the one hand, and on the
other they make those images and sell them to
make money, This is how you want to convert
these people. Will these idols which you make
and sell to the people, have a greater force than
the Gospel ? It is for you to decide.

Then again, the people tell you so much
of the slavery of women in that land—the
custom of veiling themselves in that country.

A word about the origin of that too. The
Mohammedans who at one time ruled India

WORLD’ SPIRITUAL DEBT TO INDIA 117

were very immoral. Whenever they saw an
unmarried Hindu girl, they wanted to rob her of
her honour. Thus women were subjected to
brutal outrages. The Hindus wanted to escape
this, and introduced the custom that no woman
should be allowed to marry except under the
age of puberty; under that they should marry,
Then again the women could not walk in the
streets with their faces bare, because the
Mohammedan conquerors, if they saw their
faces, would rob them of their honour. Thus
the custom was introduced of wearing veils,
which custom has been prevalent in all
countries ruled by Mohammedans. This custom
never existed in the days of Hindu rule.

The Hindus, my beloved ones, are of the
same flesh and blood as you. Their language
was the origin of your language Their face
is oriental, but they are one with you,your own
flesh and blood. If my colour is dark, that
means only that my skin is tanned; but the
parts of my body which are covered are as
white as yours.

That the European world owes its
spirituality and civilization to Greece, no sane

118 IN WOODS OF OOD-RBAUZATION

man will try to deny. But> blessed ones, what
about the Greeks ? What about the Philosophy
of the Greeks'? Did you ever read Plato,
Socrates, and Pythagoras side by side with
the Philosophy of India? If you have, then
you can never deny that the theories, such as
the ‘Immortality of the soul’ ‘Metempsychosis.'
all are tlie offspring of Hindu Philosophy, with
this difference, however, that the Greeks did
not gel all the truth from the Hindus. Wc see
to-day that the logic of Aristotle, as compared
with the logic of the Hindus, is very defective.
Compare the way the Greeks analyze the
syllogism with the way the Hindus do it, and
you will see lliat the Aristotlclian Philosophy
is defective. In the works of the Hindus,
Inductive and Deductive Logic is brought out,
while the Greeks and Europeans bring out only
the deductive methods. William Jones proves
this statement. He says, “When we compare
the writings of the Greeks with the great, dear,
comprehensive system of the philosophy of the
Hindus of India, we cannot help thinking that
the Greeks derive their knowledge from the
fountain-head of Indian philosophy.”

world’s spiritual debt to INDIA 119

What distinguishes your New Testament
from the Old ? It is saying like tliese-'T and
my father are One;”—T live and move and
have my being in him;’—*In the beginning
was the Word and the Word was with God.
and the Word was God;’-'He who has seen the
Son has seen the Father ‘The kingdom of
Heaven is within you;’—‘Love your neighbour
as yourself.’ " Again, when Christ says-“Eat
ye my flesh and drink ye my blood, and unless
ye cat my flesh and drink my blood, ye cannot
be saved,” see how the people have misinter-
pieted this saying. Instead of eating and
drinking the flesh and blood and being done
with it, they make a fetish of it. Why in the
name of philosophy, logic and reason, he who
runs may read. Read the books on the Vedas
and you will know that these statements are
in the Vedic books, preached thousands and
thousands of years ago iu India. As to the
resurrection and sermon of Christ, these also
are Hindus and Vedantic. Here I might refer
you to a book written by a Russian—Nicholas
Notovitch, written in French and translated into
English, entitled ^^he Unknown Life of Jesus,”

120 IN WOODS OF GOD REALIZATION.

The work is based upon some manuscripts
discovered in a monastery in Tibet, The
author visited the place, and when you have read
the book, you cannot but realize the truthfulness
of the statements. It gives you an account of
that part of Jesus’ life, of which the Bible says
nothing, from the eighth to the thirtieth year of
his life which was spent in India, These facts
may or may not be so, but indirectly the
knowledge could come to Jerusalem, The fact
remains, however, that his doings as well as
his teachings are only a faint re-echo of
Vedanta, the philosophy of India. In your
Bible you find the statement—“Love your neigh¬
bour as yourself,’" but no reason or rationale
is given for it. As the blessed Herbert
Spcacer says, when we simply tell a child to do
this we enslave Che higher nature in the
rational animal, for man is called by the logi¬
cians a rational animal. We ensalve the mind of
child when we tell it to do a thing on authority.
A child will do a thing you want him to
do on his own authority. The moment you say,
‘do’ or ‘donV, you enslave the mind. Once a
child was asked, ‘‘What is your name ?” He

world’s spiritual debt to INDIA 121

said, “I don’t know, but my mother called me-
‘Don’t”. When you say, “Love thy neighbour
as thyself”, you ought to tell me how and why
I ought to do this. How shall 1 love my neigh¬
bour as myself, when the Ministers and Doctors
of Divinity hate the Hindus from the bottom of
their heart. Under such circumstances, ho>v is
it possible for us to love our neighbours as
ourselves ? These categorical imperatives have
been preached in this world, and the world is
the same to-day as ever. Confucius, Zoroaster
and Shri Krishna preached, and the world still
remains with its sins. Is the world any happier
to-day ? Somebody has said that the world is
like the tail of a dog. Put the tail of a dog in
a bamboo case for a period of twelve years and
when you remove the case, the tail will curl
as ever. The same illustration will hold with
the world. Try to straighten it out, but
when you let it go again, it will go back to its
old ways. This reminds me of a story. A man
ojice went to a pseudo-Swami asking for advice
as to how to win the love-of a girl. This
pseudo-Swami says, “I will tell you a mantram,
a certain formula to repeat. Repeat it

122

la WOODS OF GOD-REALIZATJON

«mtinually and you will win the love of the
airl. But while you are repealing it, let not the.
thought of a monkey come into your mind.”
This man began to repeat the formula to himself
but, Oh, as ill luck would have it the monkey
was all the time with him. Then he pame
back to this quasi-Swami and said, ‘ I would
never in my Ufe have thought of a monkey
if you had not told me not to think of a
monkey T' So it is, blessed ones, it is those
‘dont’s’ and ‘dos’, ‘thou shalts’ and ‘thou shalt
nets’, which are not the commandments of
God.’ So you know why animals, cows,
buffaloes, even lions and tigers are cleaner
than men. They have not prohibitive Uws
for the control of what are called the animal
passions. In the commandment—Thou shalt
love thy neighbour as thyself, we see again
that the mark is missed, Man will not r^ive
anything on another’s authority, Why shall
Hove my neighbour as myself? In Vedant
philosophy in nine different ways this truth
is.brought home to us most gloriously, most
wonderfully, and most splendidly. The readers
of the ancient Vedantic Scriptures are, told

world’s SPIKJTUAL DEBT TO rNDU 123

that thy real Self is the sdf of all; thy
neighbour is thy own Self/* When I know
that my neighbour is myself, then naturally
I love him as my own self. It is pul hero
in a clearer form than in the Bible. We ought
to know the laws of Psychology, for such is
the Psychology of the human mind. Tell a
child not to touch fire, and he will touch it
But tell a child that if he touches fire, it will
burn him. then on his own authority he will
never touch it, but never say only,—‘Dont
toudi the fire/ When you simply tell me to
love my neighbour as myself, 1 will not do it.
But when you tell me that my neighbour is
myself, then I can’t help treating him as myself.

1 have told you the origin of the great
spiritualistic organism in the European world.
Let me pass on a little further.

These grand teachings which only came
through the Gospel were lost in Europe in the
Dark Ages, and the. world needed a new im¬
pulse. Wherefrom did this new impulse come
which removed the Dark Ages, and afterwards
swept away the Middle Ages? So far as/the
Accepted Christianity was concerned, the Darlc^

124 IN WOODS OP god rbalizAtion

Ages were there in spite of it. If you have read
History, you will agree with me that the Dark
aod the Medieval Ages swept away through
what is known as the Renaissance, the Revival
of Learning. This Revival was inspired by
the study of the literature of heathen Greece
and Rome. It was the heathen literature again
which dispelled the Dark and the Middle Ages,
and this heathen literature derives its origin
from India. There again the new impulse to
purify the world came from India, Then I pass
to the present day thought of the world.

Here, sweet ones, what is the new thought
of America ? And what is this Christian
Science, Theosophy, and Spiritualism of
America ? Whether through the Hindu teachers
that came disembodied or embodied, or
through the writings coming indirectly from
Schopenhauer, or through direct channels of
the new thought of America, they all came
from • India. Even the new thought in the
political history of the world, what you call
radical democracy or socialism, even that I can
prove to you is characteristically Vedantic. I
have written an Essay on Socialism and Vedanta,

world’s spiritual debt to INDIA 125

and another book-JAe rise and Fall of Nations
In these works 1 have embodied the facts
and testimony of the assertions I am mak¬
ing now.

In America, the Father, the prophet of
the new thought is Emerson. He preached the
Truh, Spirituaiity. but he made no mercenary
use of Spirituality, The truth has been popu¬
larised by him. But the spiritual father of
• Emerson, his inspirer in America, was Henry
D.Thoreau. He is more original than Emerson.
Another inspirer of Emerson is Csrlyle. And
wherefrom have these men—Carlyle, Emerson,
Thoreau, and Walt Whitman —got their inspira¬
tion ? Their inspirations came from several
sources. Whence {;ame the writings of men
like Kant and Schopenhauer ? From no o^er
source than the direct study of the Vedantlc
literature. 1 can prove to you that the new
impulse given to the world by Carlyle and
Ruskin was derived from the philosophical
writings of Kant, Schopenhauer and Fichte,

' and I shall prove to you that the new thought
of this country came from India, because
the writings of Kant, Schopenhauer, Fichte>

\26 IN WOODS OF OOD-RBALIZATION

and to some extent of Swedenborg, were
the direct inspirations of Hindu Philosophy.
Schopenhauer, in his book—TAe World Is
Will and Idea,s^ys, “In the whole world
there is no religion or philosophy so sublime
and elevating as the Vedanu (Upanishads).
This Vedanta (Upanishads) has been the
Solace of my life, and it will be the solace
of my death.’' Could any higher tribute be
paid to this philosophy of Vedanta? In his
writings also there are references to the
Vedantic philosophy and literature. Again,
the historian of Philosophy in France, Victor
Cousin says, ^‘There can be no denying that
the ancient Hindus possess the knowledge of
the true God; Their philosophy, their thought
is so sublime, so elevating, so accurate and
true, that any comparison with the writings of
the Europeans appears like a Promethean fire
Stolen from heaven as in the presence of the
full glow of the noon-day Sun." At another
place he says:—

‘‘When he read with attention the poetical •
and philosophical monuments of the East,
Aboye all, thos^ of India which are beginning

world’ SWRITUAL debt to INDIA 127

to spread m Europe, we discover there many
a truth and truths so profound, and which
fnake such a contrast with the meanness of the
result at which the European genius has some¬
times stopped that we are constrained to bend
the knee before the philosophy of the East, and
to see in this cradle of human race the native
land of the highest philosophy.’* Schlegel say&
that in comparison with the Hindu thought,
the highest stretches of European philosophy
appear like dwarfish pigmies in the presence
of grand, majestic Titans. In his work oa
Indian Laaguage, Literature and Philosophy,
he remark8:-“It cannot be denied that the early
Indians possessed a knowledge of the tcue
God, all their writings are replete with senti¬
ments and expressions, noble, clear and severely
grand, as deeply conceived and leverentially
expressed as in any human language in which
men have spoken of their God.** And with
regard more especially to Vedant Philosophy,
he says: - ‘The divine origin of man is continu¬
ally inculcated to stimulate his efforts to return,
to animate him in the struggle and incite him
to consider a re-union and re-corporation with

128 IN WOODS OP GOD-REAUZATION

Divinity as the one primary object of every
action and exertion ” Max Muller says; “If
tbe judgment or the opinion of such a grand
philosopher as Schopenhauer requires endorse¬
ment, I, on the basis of my long life, devoted
to the study of almost all religions and
philosophies, must humbly endorse.” He says,
“If philosophy or religion is meant to be a
preparation for the after life, a happy life
and happy death, 1 know of no better
preparation for it than the Vedanta,” Again
he says, “I am neither ashamed, nor afraid
to say that I share bis (Schopenhauer's)
enthusiasm for Vedanta and feel indebted to it
for much that has been helpful to me in my
passage through life.” Sir Edwin Arnold's India
‘Kemited'y bis '\^ong Celestial” his ^Light of
Asia* 'Song of Songs* all contain information
concerning this subject, to which I refer you.
Thoreau; in his ^Walden Pond and Let tiers',
refers frequently to Vcdantic writings; also in
his ‘Excursion’ he refers to Indian writings.
The source of all the new thought in America
comes from Thoreau, who admitted that he
got b is th o ugh t from the H indus. Emers on when

world’s spiritual debt to INDIA 129

about to return to America after a trip to
England, was attended by Carlyle to the
railway station. As a present Carlyle gave
him one of the early translations of the
Bhagwat Gita by Edwin Jones. This work had
been translated into Latin, French, and German
even before the days of Kant. Kant revived the
philosophical thought of Europe, and as the
basis of his philosophy of the a Priori character
of time, space and causation, be is indebted
to India

In the first edition of the work by Mrs.
Eddy, there are quotations from the Bhagwat
Gita ; but in the later editions they were
expunged. God’s word, if it is God’s word at
all, must be clear, must be plain, and must be
iotelligent,

1 don’t mean to say that the people here are
plagiarists or imitators. I maintain that it is
just as well for the people of America to
rediscover these truths by themselves as to get
them from India. “There is nothing new under
the Sun.” History shows that it comes from
the Hindus.

Real Socialism, genuine Socialism is to-day

*1

130 IN WOODS OF GOD-REALIZATION

actually in existence among the Swarais in the
Himalayas. Edward Carpenter of England
obtained his Socialism from the Hindus. So all
your new thought is the old, antiquated thought
of the Hindus. The genuine centre, the whole
truth and all the new thought, Blessed ones, in
order to get to that you have yet to wait a little ^
and get more knowledge fromlndi^i, because
most of those wonderful writings have not yet
been translated into your language, such as the
Yogayoshishtha which deals with all the new
thought of America. This work is clear,
comprehensive, logical and is written in real
true poetry. Such is the manuer in which our
Mathematical works are written, and thus
Mathematics is made a pleasure, instead of a
bugbear as it is to most students.

In this world your work should be done ^
with pleasure. It reminds me of a garden in
which the poor labouring coolies are breaking
stones' on the paths. Their hearts are heavy,
they are drudging all the time. On the lawn of
the garden’in which these coolies are working
are princes playing tennis. Their work is a
pleasure, for in their pleasure they are sweating

world’s spiritual DBBT to INDIA 131

possibly harder than the coolies, Let your
attitude in this world be that of the princes
playing tennis. Their work is a pleasure,
Not that you have to give up work and labour,
but that your spirit in and towards your work
should be changed, and work and pleasure
you will always be doing. You will be full
of another bliss, centred in your Godliness,
When you are perched on the summit of
the beautiful poplars and cedars of your divine
Nature, on the divine Nature of this beautiful,
spiritual thought, godly music and wonderful
work will be falling and coming from your
Soul. That which is forced is never forcible.
As light emanates from the Sun, as fragrance
emanates from the rose, as coolness emanates
from the beautiful snowy peaks, mountain-
streams and springs, so let peace, joy, love and
light proceed from you, O Light of lights. OM
peace be with you I

OM! OMIl OM!!I

AN APPEAL TO AMERICANS
ON BEHALF OF INDIA

Lecture, delivered at the Golden Gate Hall,
San Francisco, on January 28,190B.

The subject of to-nighPs discourse is an
appeal to the Americans. Don’t know why
very few Americans have come. Well, neve
mind, even those that have come, in the eyes
of Rama, represent not only America, but
Europe and the whole universe, If the words
that are spoken to-night appeal to the hearts
of this small audience, if these words reacji
home to a single one of you, if say, even, five,
six or seven of you take up this work or hear
this cry in the wilderness, Rama will regard
these words as a success,

Rama appeals to the Divinity within,
appeals to the Infinity in you, and he is sure
that the Infinity within, even in a single body,
can work wonders and marvels, You will
kindly not put before the real Soul or the
Infinity any curtain of sectarianism. For one

AN APPEAL TO AMERICANS 133

hour al least, you will kindly thrust aside and
strike out all veils and all difference of colour,
cast and creed, which do not allow people to
listen to stranger willingly.

INDIA'S WORK IN THE PAST
Rama has been talking to you for about
two months about the crest-jewels of Indian
wisdom; he has been bringing to you the
nourishing nectar, the invigorating milk of the
Indian Scriptures. To-day Rama wants to tell
you something about the mine that brought
forth such jewels, the cow which yielded that
milk; he wants to tell you something about
the country which first promulgated this truth,
something about the land that gave the world
its religions. Yes, the religions were given to
the world by India, directly or indirectly.
Rama wants to talk to you about the land that
is still giving you all your new religions and
cults which are springing, up in Europe and
America every day. All your new thought,
Theosophy, Spiritualism, Christian Science,
Mental Healing, of which you feel so proud
to-day; all these withbut exception derive their

134 IN WOODS OF GOD-REALIZAnoN

origin from India, directly or indirectly. ^ Rama
is talking to you about the land which gave the
world all its systems of Philosophy, in the days
gone by or at the present day. Your Grecian
philosophers like Plato, Socrates, Pythagoras,
your Plotinus owe their inspiration to East-
India; the history of Philosophy shows it to
you. Schopenhauer, Schlegel, Schelling, M.
Cousin, e^c., all confess that they owe their
inspiration to East India, to Vedanta, to
Sankhya,to Buddhism, to iheUpanishads or the
Gita. Your modern Monism, whether of
America, England, or Germany, derives its light
from the East-India. Rama is talking to you of
the‘land of Shankara and Krishna,’ the land
which brought forth such noble thoughts and
high ideas that inspired and filled with enlhusi*
asm your venerable Emerson, Walt Whim an, Sir
Edwin Arnold and Max Muller; the land not
only of noble ideas and high thoughts, not only
of poetry and philosophy, but the land no less
of physical valour and strength. You will be
astonished to hear these words,—Hhe land of
physical valour and strength.' Even, in-these
days, who are the people that fornix the greatest

AN APPEAL TO .AMERICANS . 135

aid and safeguard to the Government ?

It is the Sikhs, the Gurkhas, the Mahrattas
and Rajputs of East India, It U the Sepoys
of India that have to bear the brunt of battle
on all occasions where the British encounter
their worst foes. Rama is talking to you of
India, once the richest country. Nation after
nation became prosperous by feeding on India.
America was discovered by Columbus in the
search for the most coveted India. America
was originally named India. Rama is talking
to you of the land which was once the head of
the world. It was the most lofty and exalted
laud in the world with those mighty
Himalayas covered with magnificent woods
and rich fields. But that is not what Rama
means, it was the head of the world, - not only
physically but intellectually, morally, spiritually.
To-day that land is the fest of the world. O
Americans, you are to-day the head of the
world, and India is your antipodes, India is
your feet. Rama comes, to you with an appeal.
0 head, head, if you want to be strong, to be
healthy, you should take care of the feet. If
the feet are harmed or injured, the; bead will

136 IN WOODS OF GOD-REALIZATION

also suffer. If the feet are paining, if the feet
are aching, will not that damage the head ?
0 head, to you does Raroa appeal on behalf of
your antipodes. The mother who nourished
whole world with her philosophy and poetry,
with her high thoughts and religion, that
mother of the world, that ancient nourisher of
the world is sick to-day. Your mother is sick
j to-day. The eldest scion, the eldest sister of the
Aryan family, Esst India, is sick to-day. Will
you cot attend to her? The eow of plenty is
diseased ; it is not dead, it is diseased. You can
help her, You can aid in curing her. India has
been giving the world milk, nourishing food,
strengthen log tonic, inspiring knowledge; (hat
India, like a cow, needs to be nursed, This cow
, is famishing, starving, dying of hunger and thirsty
you have only to feed her with grass and fodder.
The world has been taking from her milk,
nourishing food; give her cheap grass, give her
something to keep the body and soul together.
Beef-eating England, flesh eating European
countries will say. we want not to feed this
cow, we shall kill her and eat her. Well, you
may do what you please, but remember one

AN APPEAL TO AMERICANS

137

thing, that even if you want to hill her and eat
her, you should lake care of her health ; the
beef that comes from a diseased cow will ruin
your health, will be injurious to you, s

0 England and European powers, you have
to take care of her health at least.

HOPES FROM AMERICA
Rama puts forth this appeal on behalf of
India before Americans, the heroes of to-day;
Americans, the men of sacrifice; noble
Americans, who can produce men who offer
their lives in the name of truth for vivisection.
It was only the other day that a noble
American offered his life f<»r vivisection in
order to advance the cause of truth; Americans,
the martyrs of Science, Rama appeals to
Americans, Say, Amerieans, will you not
hear ? Say, American press, will you not
respond. Leave out Rama’s body, crush dowu
Rama, hack it to pieces, cut it piecemeal, do
whatever you please with this body, but take
up the cause of India, take up the cause of
truth,. To the Americans who abolished
slavery, to the Americans who ’ are breaking

13S IN WOODS oF GOD*REALlZATION

down Caste in this country; to such blessed
Americans is India crying for attention.

Supposing India is‘very bad; supposing
India gave to the world nothing; supposing
the Hindus to-day are the worst people in the
world, that will be a higher claim on your
attention; that wiU be the strongest reason
why you should attend to her.

If one man is sick, he not only injures
himself, but he spreads that disease throughout
the whole world. If one be suffering from cold,
others catch the contagion, India is suffering
from cold. You will say how can cold
catch a sunny, hot country, They are' suffering
not from the cold of winter, but from the cold
of chill, penury, and poverty. India is
suffering, shivering from cold. Now you
Ynow if one man is suffering from cold, his
cold will affect his neighbours. If one man is
suffering from cholera, his disease will be
uansmitted to others ; if one man is suffering
from smallpox others will catch the contagion.
It is the duty of each and all to help the person
who is sick, if not for his own account, for the
sake of the whole world. If you allow them

AN APPEAL TO AMERICANS

139

to suffer from the malady or disease, you are
allowing weakness to spread over the whole
world. For the sake of the whole world,
Rama asks you to take up the cause of India.
In the name of truth and justice, Rama asks you
to take up in right earnest the cause of India.

You will ask what is wrong with India,
what is the difficulty with India. The disease
is political, social and reliitous^

THE POLITICAL STATE OF INDIA

Rama will not dwell long upon the political
plight of the benighted land. In a country
where millions of men are dying of famine ;
.where hunger and starvation are harvesting
the green, fresh girls and boys ; where poverty
and plague are nipping in the bud, promising
youths; where the tender, tiny baby cries with
dry, pouting lips because the famishing mother
has no milk to nurse it; in a country where
there is hardly a. man who can make the two
ends meet, where a person living from hand
to mouth is thought to be very well off, where
the Rsjas and Princes are not unoften be
involved in sad pecuniary troubles; in a counj*

140 IK WOODS OF COD-RBAUZATION

try whi&h is loyal, patient, and faithful, no
matter what its grievances and sufferings ; in
such a country of appalling poverty, the
gracious Government, in addition to the
impoverishing taxes, thinks it indispensably
necessary to squeeze out and ring out millions
xjf dollars from the curdled blood and parched

skin of the gasping labourers.,....

/ .

.In addition to this grand or awful

Tun and show, a thousand lesser forms' of
extravagant tomfoolery are draining the country
and sucking the sap and life blood out of it.
All the high lucrative offices are in the exclu¬
sive possession of the British, Out of the
teeming three hundred millions of people there
is not a single representative in the House of
Parliament, All native enterprise is handicap-
•ped by the British....

All native arts, industries and manufactures

AN APPEAL TO AMERICANS H\

have decayed. The only liberty that the
people can enjoy, or rather, the only illusory
liberty that consumes and enjoys their health,
wealth and morality, is the demoniacal spirit
of false freedom, borrowed from strong English
wines and ruining British liquors, the use
of which is highly encouraged among the
naturally sober natives of India. These wines
have been introduced by the English. This
gives you an idea of the political predicament
of India, This tells you something of their
outward condition.

Now Rama will acquaint you with the
internal wrongs from which they are suffering.
Now you will be told something about the real,
intrinsic cause of their dawnfall, the inherent
or central cause of their difficulties and despon¬
dence. Much can be said on the subject, but
the people cannot spare lime enough to heat
the whole matter at length, so Rama will have
to condense everything ia a out-shell.

The downfall of India, the decline of lodia,
,3? explained by the Vedanta philosophy. It is
,a matter of Karma. Karma means something
brought about by our own doings, The liter^

142 IN WOODS OF OOD-?tEALlZATION

meaning of the word Karma is action, OUr own
doing. This, what 'they are reaping* is what
they sowed for themselves the other day. As
the Hindus ill-treated the aborigines of India,
so they in their turn are being treated by the
conquering nations. As everybody who falls
sick is responsible for his sickness, brings about
his sickness by ignorance, by over-eating or by
violating the laws of health, so the Indians are
sick, diseased by their own doing, through
ignorance,

But no matter how the disease may have
been brought about, the Doctor is not to come
to the patient and reproach him; the Doctor
is to cheer up the sick, to help up the invalid.
By lepricnanding the sick, you make the
malady worse, you aggravate his illness. It
is not time to find fault with them for their
misdeeds and wrongs. Our duty, your duty is
to help them out of their difficulty.

THE ORIGIN OF INDIAN CASTE

Political Economy tells us about division
of labour. In a factory* or mill, in order
that the whole business may prosper, the

AN APPEAL TO AMERICANS

143

work ought to be divided up. There is
division of labour in your own bod>; the
eyes only see, the eyes do not heat] the ears
only hear, they do not perform the function
of the eyes; the hands do not do the work
of the feet, the feet have to do their work and
the hand have to do the work peculiar to
them. If we want to hear with the eyes and
walk with the nose ; if we want to smell with
the hands, and to eat with the ears, would
that be desirable ? No, that wou d throw us
back into the primitive Stages of the develop¬
ment of protoplasm, that would make us
monerons which are all stomach, one stomach
performing all the functions of the eyes, ears>
nose, and feet. We do not wish that. Division
of labour is lawful, is necessary, and on this
principle of division of labour at one time in
India the Caste system was systematized. It
was simply a division of labour and nothing
else, one man taking up the duty of a priest,
another man taking up the duty of a warrior*
because this , second fellow was more warlike
and full of animal spirits. Being fit only for-
wielding weapons and for fighting and running

144 IN WOODS OF GOD-REALIZATION

down his enemies, he could not take up the
mild task of the preacher. Here was division
of labour. There were some other people who
were more ft for sedentary professions as of
a shopkeeper. These were not as capable of
doing priestly work as of following the pro¬
fession of a shopkeeper. There were those,
and especially the aborigines who were not
cultured in the least, who received no educa¬
tion, who spent their childhood and boyhood
in idling away their time. These people could
not lake up the work of a priest; they could
not take up the work of a warrior, because
they had received no drill, no discipline neces¬
sary for wars. They were unable to work even
as shopkeepers. Shopkeeping requires some
skill and some knowledge. These people were
willing to take up the task of a common
labourer, of a sweeper, or a labourer who
breaks stones on the roadaide. Thus were
the four divisions brought about in the way of
transacting business in India. The people of
priest-caste were called Brahmans, the people
who did the duty of warriors were called
Kshatrias, the people who worked as shop-

AN APPEAL TO AMERICANS , 1^5

keepers or merchants were caHed Vaisbyas,
and the people that pursued coromoh manual
labour were called Sudras. There was no
prohibition nor any stringent law to disallow
a man from taking up any work he liked. And
is not this division of labour prevalent every¬
where ? Is not this division of labour prevalent
in America even ? In America these classes
are present; they exist in England ; they are
present eveywhere else. Has not America its
Caste ? Have not Americans their Upper Ten
and their common plebeians ? Everywhere we
have this division, natural division, But, then,
what is wrong in Indian Caste ?

In India there was written on Hindu Law
a work called Manu Smriii. That book was
a help to all classes in those days. To each
class it gave different suggestions, directions,
methods and rules for conducting business ; it
laid down convenient ways and rules as a help
to the Brahmans, and it told the Kshatrias
how to do their work, and so this book was
meant to serve all the classes of that time.
By and by this book was misread and
m sinterpreted, and some how or other every-

146 IN WOODS OF GOD-REALIZATION

thing was turned topsy-turvy, everything was
upset. All this class-system and the system
of division of labour was stultified, ossified,
iQUmmified, or petrified. They gave it rigidity,
they made it crystallized and the nation’s life
was gone. Everything became mechanical
and artificial. Manii Smriti instead of serving
the people became a despotic tyrant.

DEGENERATION OF INDIAN CASTE
In a University there are usually four
classes, the freshman, the sophomore, the
junior, and the senior class. These classes
are well and good, but the Professors do not
wish that these classes should remain as they
arcj that the student of the lowest class should
not make progress and advance to the next
higher class, and the students of that class
should not* advance to the third year class, and
the student of the third year class should not
be promoted to the fourthyear class. Classes
are well and good ; this division was alright,
but the mistake, the terrible blunder made in
India, the terrible blunder which has to account
for the. downfall of India to-day, was the

AN APPEAL TO AMERICANS

stultifyiQg, the paralyang of this division, the
crystallizing of this division. Thas arose the
present Caste system of India, her greatest
bane.

The fleeting rules and regulations of Manu
Smritl which dealt with the then State of affairs,
that concerned only the temporary matters
of the day, by and by usurped and mono¬
polized all the honour and respect which was
due to Shruti or to the imperishable Truth
preached in the Upanishads or VedanU.
People began to live for the rules and laws,
instead of realizing that all rules and laws are
for them. The authority of the dead past
was over-rated and placed far higher than the
dictates of the living Atma-deva, the,God
within. Man was practically made only the
flesh and blood, the Brahman or Kshatriya ;
the real Self, the eternal Truth, was ignored
entirely to all intents and purposes, Fear
of Caste-rules and the terrific bugbear of
custom would not allow a person to fee! for a
moment that he is one with the people of the
other races. The thought of Brahmanhood or
Kshatrlyaho6d.is all the time too emphatically

H5 IN WOODS OF GOD-RBAUZATTON

pronounced to allow the feeling of manhood
to enter the heart.

The face of the earth has changed many
times since Manu's days, the rivers have
. shifted their beds, the wild forests have been
hewn and burned, the flora and fauna have
varied; the Kshatriya or warrior profession
has been in a way entirely swept out of India.
The language of the country has been washed
out of the land and has become to the modern
Hindu as strange and unknown as Latin or
Greek , and yet the spiritual suicides of India
remain up to this day abject slaves to the
Caste conventionalities, rites and rules laid
down by Maou for his contemporaries, Inde¬
pendent thinking is looked upon as, heresy^
nay, the worst crime. Whatever comes through
the dead language is sacred, If your reasoning
'dot$ not .slavishly glorify the freaks and fancies
and sayings of the dead, damned are you,
everybody will turn right against you. You
must fit the new wine into the old bottles.
All work is noble, all labour is sacred, but
through the perversion of the Caste spirit,
honour and disgrace .have got attached to

AN Appeal to Americans 149

ijutside professions. The people who do not
utilize their early age in educating themselves
have to redeem their past idleness, by hard
manual labour in youth. They pay by the
sweat of their brow for their previous laziness.
Who are you or I to call their labour menial or
to despise the Sudra work ? Is not that kind
of labour also just as necessary as the priest’s,
the warrior’s or the merchant’s work. So, low
have matters been brought to-day that the
people of the lower castes are not allowed to
walk in the same street where higher caste
jaen —BrahraaDS, Kshatriyas, or Vaisyas—pass.
They have to live in poor huts outside the
respectable villages or towns inhabited by the
higher caste men. If the shadow of a man of
low caste falls upon a person of high caste,
that high caste mao will have to wash and
bathe in order that he may purify himself.
If any thing is touched by a person of low
caste, that thing is polluted and. corrupted, that
thing is not worthy of use for a person of high
caste. The low caste men have to live upon the
crusts and crumbs given to them by the high
caste people in reward for the most trying and

OF GOD-RBALIZATION

menial labour that these low class people
perform, You will excuse Rama, if he in order
to lay before you the facts, is obliged to use
words which you are not accustomed to hear.
These low caste men, these poor Sudras or
Pariahs have to sweep the streets, to rub and
scrub with their hands the dirty gutters, yes, not
only that, they have to clean the water closets,
and as a reward for that labour, they are given
Stale crumbs and crusts. They cannot be rich;
they are exceedingly poor. Rama’s heart aches
when thinking their state. The low caste
children cannot enter the schools where higher
caste boys receive education; because of their
sitting there those high caste boys will be defiled.
How can these down-trodden people receive any
education ? These people live from hand to
mouth; they are dying every day. India is a
favourite haunt of all kinds of plague and
disease, and these poor Sudras, living in
unhealthy quarters are the most hospitable host
to all sorts of maladies and contagions. They
generously invite choleras, plagues and famines
to feed voluptuously on their bodies. The poor,
the low are always the feet, base or support of

AN APPBAL TO AMGRICANS *

151

Society, The overhearing Society which obstructs
and Stunts the growth of the lower castes, the
Society that maltreats and denies education to
the poor ignorant sinners, that society cuts down

its own feet, that society must crumble down.

Most of these low caste men were the
aboriginal inhabitants of India. The Aryans,
whom you call Hindus to-day, conquered the

abori^nes of India and then they subjected them
to this most menial, abject degradation. -They
reduced them to thU state of misery. They
committed a crime, and they sowed what they
are reaping to-day. The Hindus or the Aryans
sowed, in tbeir treatment of the aborigloal
inhabitants of India, what they are reaping at
the hands of the Mohammedans, and at the
hands of the English who are ruling India to-day.
This is the law of Karma or Compensation.

Rama talks to you not as a Hindu, not as
an Indian, not as a person of any nationality
or denomination. Rama’s stand is on ‘ the
truth, the whole truth and nothing but the
truth ” Rama’s body belongs to the highest
Caste in India, and Rama is appealing to you
on behalf of the lowest downtrodden caste in

152 IN WOODS OF GOD-RBALIZATION

tile world. In the name of truth and justice;
in the name of the Real Self, which is also
the Self of tht Pariahs of India, strike out all
curtains and veils of sectarianisra and difference
and lake up the cause of the suffering people
of India.

How is the Caste distinction or division
working and bringing about the whole nation's
downfall ? It was originally intended to be the
division of labour and the preservation of love,
But in Indian Caste things have been turned
upside down ; the cart has been put before
the horse. There is, in these days, division
of love and harmony and preservation of
ancient tasks and differences; it ought to
have been otherwise. The clothes that fitted
the member of a family, years upon years
ago, are still forced upon him now that the
muscles and bones tend to outgrow the child’s
swadding clothes. Thus, like the feet of
Chinese ladies, the intellect of the Hindus is
kept cramped and thwarted by constraining
moulds and squeezing and compressing shoes
and jackets. The orthodox education of a
Hindu is like running between two walls,

AN APPEAL TO AMERICANS

153

There was a man who was suffering from
two diseases. He had stomach-ache and soro
eyes. He laid his grievances before a Doctor
and the Doctor gave him two medicines, one for
the eyes, another for the stomach, bat this man
mixed them up. The medicine which was to be
taken for the stomach contained pepper, salt>
and some other things as hot, in order to set
his stomach alright; and the medicine which
was for the eyes contained antimony, zinc, and
other things of the same sort. Now, we know
that if antimony is taken internally, it is
poisonous, and the other things, pepper and
salt, irpy be taken, but they are not to be
applied to the eyes, This man got the two
medicines interchanged, and that which was to
be taken he applied to the eyes and that which
was to be applied to the eyes he ale. Thus
were the eyes aggravated and the stomach
worsted, That is what has been done io India.
There was to be division io work, but union and
harmony in spirit; but as ill-luck or ignorance
would have it, love and spirit is divided and
outside duties are • attempted to be preserved.

The Gorgon of Custom and Conventionality

154 IN WOODS OF GOD-REALIZATION

has, as it were, petrified aod fossilized all the
vitality and origioality of the race. Orthodoxy
has come to mean exclusivism and dumb
conservatism, Iti practical life the high caste
man, forgetting the glory, grandeur, and sanctity
of the Real Self, the Heaven within, set his foot
right on the Atman, Vedanta, and began
foolishly to pride himself on his worldly position,
prestige, and personal achievements, Then there
was- the anxiety to keep up and preserve his
dignity or honour, and there was the caring for
and hunting after further personal distinction

and sclljsh aggrandisement, The pciiny*wisc,

pound-foolish policy of the high caste man
eventually brought about his degradation, and
fall and also the ruin of the low caste mob that
puffed him up and. ministered to his vanity
and ignoraoce.

How are we to remedy it ? To-day shall.we
stir to crush these Hindus and Aryans t^cause
they were so cruel to the Sudras? Will this
mend matters ? No, no ! The greatest punish¬
ment you can inflict upon a musician is to correct
him andset him aright. The greatest punishment
you coo uifiici upon a criminal or sinner is to

AN APPEAL TO AMERICAf^S

155

educate him, to kill the ignorance in him. If you
want to kill the sinner in him. you need not kill
the man; the sinner in him is ignorance, Educate
him, remove his- ignorance. There you have set
matters aright. This is the proper way to remedy
matters, to destroy the germ of the disease—
ignorance.

The Aryans and Hindus have already
suffered enough, You need not go from
America and Europe to resent and avenge their
cruelty to the aborigines. They have already
very dearly paid for it, For centuries and
centuries they have been under foreign yoke,
have been living in slavery. People from Afgha¬
nistan invaded the country aud conquered
them ; people from Greece came and ruled
over them. People from Persia lorded over
them. People from all quarters of the world
came and bullied them. They have paid
dearly for their faults. Now is tbe time for
you to-go* and coivsol© them, it is time for
you to go and cheer them up, time for you ter
go and destroy that anti-Vedantic ignorance
which makes them cling to caste;

- How badly* and sadly' are their energi^.

155 IN'woods of god-realization

wasted and their powers frittered by this
idea of casie difference. All concerns,—moral,
spiritual political, social,-are corrupted and
mined by the parly spirit,*antipathy, and race¬
hatred engendered by the Indian caste. Here
is, suppose, a man who goes to read Philosophy
or to study History or any Science. If his mind
is perturbed, he will be unable to continue his
studies. In order that we may receive any
education, it is necessary that our mind should
be at rest. Now what is it that throws men
off the balance ? What is it that ruffles and
upsets them ? It is the feeling of difference.
When you are with kindred spirits, there
is no difference, there is no rival around
you ; you can read successfully, but when
you are surrounded by antagonistic elements,
by hostile factors, you cannot do anything,
you cannot read. Just mark, if the members
of my family, my brothers, sisters and other
relatives are around me, I can go on reading,
I will not be disturbed. 1 am disturbed only
when such element drops in, which tells upon
my mind, such element which is regarded as
foreign, which is looked upon, as alien. This

AN APPEAL TO AWBRICANS 157

caste system of India impairs the intellectual
powers becaiJse of rendering the environnoents
uncongenial, engenders restlessness in the
mind by making the people believe all those
around them alien, foreign, different, and
breeding a spirit of rivalry, jealousy and
discord. There are four big castes and these
are subdivided in their turn into hundreds,
and the number bids fair to become legion.
In addition to that, Mohammedanism is one
sect or caste. Christianity another growing
sect or caste, Theosophy, Ary a Samaj and a
thousand other mushroom societies with
glowing names and nicknames are newly
introduced castes. Now if there comes a Moha¬
mmedan, the Hindu student is unbalanced,
if there appears on the scene a Christian, the
Hindu is unbalanced ; if there comes, suppose,
a Hindu of a different caste, even his presence
overshadows the mind of the orthodox Hindu
student.

Do you not see that this caste and this
difference, which is carried too far in India, is
not allowing their intellectual powers to
develop properly ? It does not allow them tb

158 in WOODS OF GOD-REAtlZATl ON

carry on their education thoroughly. Thus, in
order that our educational work in India may
prosper, we must try to place the people under
circumstances where their minds may be at
rest, and the minds will be at rest only when
this unnatural difference is done away with,
when the caste spirit is dispensed with.

Rama does not say that you Americans
are entirely free from caste. You are not. If
you are a Christian and you cannot bear the
sight of a Hindu or Buddhist, what is that ?
That is caste. If you are an American and
you cannot bear the sight of a Spaniard or an
Englishman, you are suffering from political
caste. If you are a white man and you cannot
work in the same room with a negro, you are
possessed by the demon of social caste. You
are not entirely free from caste, if yon are
jealous of your neighbour or your rival. To
what is jealousy due? Jealousy is due to caste,
nothing but caste. If you cannot bear your
colleague to be praised in your presence, you
are suffering from caste. American caste is
mostly determined by the almighty Dollar.
There are many social evils in America.

AN APPEAL TO AMEMCANS

159

America needs to take out the beam from her
own eye. America needs reform. American
constitution of society is by no means perfect.
America sorely needs the spirit of Vedanta.
But the state of India is wretchedly worse.
The eastc of America is flexible, soft, pliable,
as everything living in the world should be.
But the Indian society la like a clock run out,
fixed, ossified, straight-faced, straigbt-laced,
like the wax images in the dry goods stores of
American cities.

Life evolves on the principles of heredity
and adaptation or education. The law of
heredity reigns supreme in the lower kingdoms,
Man also owes his physical powers and organs
to the principle of heredity. But man
advances and rises to his most refined, full
blown and perfect slate more especially
through adaptation and education. Chickens
when hatched out of eggs are found possessed
of all the intelligence their parents have. Some
birds on the very instant of their birth begin to
peck at flies like their ancestors. They inherit
almost all their powers from the parents, and
in that,* practically, their development and

160 IN WOODS OF G0D-RBAL12ATI0N

progress ends. On the other hand, man is
marked for his rise, chiefly through education
and adaptation. The pretty lttt?e baby is just
as unintelligent and silly as the infant puppy;
or polly is in some respects cleverer than
the little Adam. But the great difference in
men and animals lies in this, that whereas the
puppy or polly has by the law of heredity got
almost all it requires for its perfection, the
child will or can by education and adaptation
so develop and evolve his inherited powers as
to bring the whole world under his sway. The
blunder made by the Hindus consists in
practically denying the virtue of education and
ike law of adaptation for man, and enforcing the
principle of heredity on Hindu Society to such
an extent as to reduce human beings to the
level of trees and animals. They practically
believe not in the infinite possibilities of the
sou]. They believe not that a Sudra can be
educated up to Brahman hood; they would keep
the son of a Sudra. Sudra and the son of a
Vaishya. Vaishya, because, as they say, a fig-
tree produces fig seeds, and a dog gives birth
to a dog only. This they plead ancf uphold

AN APPSAL TO AMERICANS 151

in the teeth of every«day facts which give
them the he plain and simple. The sons
of the once most cultured thinkers or venerable
Rishis and marvellous philosophers and
sages, as no doubt all the Brahmans are.
have not most of them fallen back into the
State of stupidity, if not idiocy, through lack
of culture and education? And the descendants
of comparative savages and wild uncullured
poeple, as modern Englishmen and most other
Europeans are, have they not by dint of
education and hard, free work risen to the
heights of physical, intellectual, and political
powers ? God is no respecter of persons,
prestige, or caste. He who works carries the
day. He who educates himself and acquires
knowledge has the field.

Rama does not say that you are entirely
free from casje, but Indians are suffering more
from caste than you are. You can more easily
free yourselves than most Indians can. You are
in some respects nearer to Rama than Indians
are. Rama wishes you to strengthen this spirit
of freedom in you, to fan it on, to increase it
and enlarge it, develop it more and more and

162 JN WOODS OF GOD-RBALIZATION

evoke this spirit of freedom among the Indians,
and to make them also share your felicity and
happiness. In this way we can strike at the root
of the evil. It is through duality, through this
difference, which is antagonistic to Vedanta,
which is the opposite pole of Vedanta, that
people commit bodily, mental, or spiritual suicide.

A few more words about the disease. The
Brahman class, the higher class, think it
beneath their dignity to take up any manual
labour. The higher class people will
not extend their hands to any work which is
not sanctioned by usage or custom as worthy
of their dignity ; for instance, a Brahman,
a Kshatriya. or a Vaishya, the three higher
castes will never, never take up the work of
a shoemaker or the work of a barber, sailor,
painter, blacksmith, dyer, tailor, mason,
carpenter, weaver, potter, oi^ a common
labourer, to say nothing of the sweeper’s work,
These people will die rather than touch work
of this kind. They will never trade in hides
or leather. Now if these professions are not to
be taken up by the higher castes who have a
little capital, but are to be left entirely to the

AN APPEAL TO AMERICANS 163

Jo west caste people who have no money, how
are the industries and manufactures of India to
prosper? How can they make any advance
in the useful arts? America is rich to-day on
account ©f its industries; England and other
European powers arc rich to-day on account
of their industries, which are taken up by the
people who have capital in their hands. What
hope can there be for a people if more than
three-fourths of them disdain industries and
despise noble work, and call it religion to cling
like creepers Co the dead stock of custom aud
past prcfessions ?

As a natural consequence of slavish
adherence to the past, aod observing solely
through the eyes of the dead, many other
social evils which need not be described just
now, are ruling rampant in India. What can
be expected of them with such a dead weight
of cumbersome customs of the past on their
head? Help them, Americans, to stand on
the shoulders of their forefathers, instead of
being weighed down under their heels, nay,
under their mere names, Help them to pos¬
sess and own their noble heritage, instead of

164 IH WOODS OF CSOD-RBALIZATION

being possessed and owned by it. Let tbeir
heritance belong to them and not they belong
to the heritance. Their social customs and
domestic ways have no doubt, some com¬
mendable aspects and redeeming features too ;
but ignorant, blind obedience of those ways
and customs makes them insipid and lifeless.

Out of one hundred and fifty millions of
women in India, which is double the whole
population of the United States, hardly one
per cent can write their own name. What
arrant superstition and timidity, will not such
a state of affairs tend to transmit to posterity?

The sublime teachings of the Upanishads
and the glorious Vedanta have been replaced
by a sort of kitchen-religion, that is, eccentric
regard for diet and the ways of eating. The
scope of knowledge of some of the best ortho¬
dox scholars (Pandits) does not extend beyond
a mechanical mastery of grammatical rules of
old Sanskrit, which is no more spoken any¬
where. Memorising and quoting ancient texts
gives you superiority over all original thinkers
and free jcasoners. You are a grand savant
if you can twist and torture Vedic texts to

AN APPEAL TO AMERICANS

165

tickle the wild humour of your fellows. The
lueDtal energies of many a young man are
being lavished or wasted upon discussing and
debating knotty questions like "How many
times should a man gurgle at the time of
ablutions T*

Close confinement within narrow sectarian
circles and extreme trust on authority has
sunk them to such depths of ignorant bias that
merest trifles and meaningless symbols have
become the centres of deep-rooted feeling. The
most solemn and extremely serioas point in the
popular religion of India today is extreme
reverence for the cow. Some of the sects of
Hinduism diverge from each other as widely
as the poles, but extravagant regard for the cow
is shared by each and all of the sects. The
pet eccentricity, the feeling dearest and nearest
to the Hindu in general is the sanctity of the
cow’s body. Touch this point and you
immediately excite the deepest emotions and
hottest temper of the Hindu. Innumerable
factions and strifes are being caused every
day by this touchy'* question. The Great
Mutiny of 1857 was brought about in the

166 IN WOODS OF 'G0D-RfiALl2ATION

name of the cow. It is related that the first
Mohammedan Conqyest of India was affected
by taking advantage of this favourite
superstition of the Hindus. Mohammed Ghori
was repulsed by the brave Hindu Rajputs when
he first attacked India. But he returned and
invaded India again, this time with a more
extensive knowledge of the whims and hobbies
that lay nearest to the Hindu heart. It is said
he fenced his armies by keeping rows of cows
all around. What a curious bulwark ! The
Hindus could* not attack. How could they
false their arms against tbs sacred cow?
The merciful Hindu shrank at the sight
of the mild, sacred cows, spared, them,
but lost the country; and for centuries
and centuries, even up to the present
day, . suffered and is suffering thousands,
cay,' millions and millions of cows to be
slaughtered and eaten up by the merciless
conquerors. This story may not be true, but
a« phenomenon of this* kind is possible even*
to-day. Sudi rank ignorance, prevails, in the
name of Ancient Religion. Now.mark the
aoomaly. The most«sacred " Scriptures; the

AN APPEAL TO AMERICANS

167

revered Veda?, instead of probibitiQg the use
of beef, enjoin cow-sacrifice time and again,
Here is an illustration, a passage, from Yajur
Veda, Satpath Brahmana, Brihat Aranyaka
Upanishad, Adhyaya, VI, 4th Brahmana
18th verse:

“And if a man wishes that a learned son
should be born to him, famous, public man,
popular speaker, that he should know all the
Vedes, and that he should live to his full age,
then after having prepared boiled rice, with
meat and butter, they, man and woman should
both eat, being' fit to have offspring, The
should be oF a young or an old bull
(Ukshaca or Rishabha),”

Oh, where is that unfiincbing intrepidity of
the Vedanta once preached by Krishna, which,
instead of wasting our holy feelings on the
bodies of cows, ants, and fig trees, sets us free
of all timid regard, not only of the little body
which we call “my own,*' but exempts us from
all weakening iilusion that .makes us attach
undue importance to the bodies of father,
uncles, grandfather, teachers and all relatives.
Needed iathe: happy Vedanta which brings hpipot

168 IN WOODS OP OOD-REALIZATJON

the Imperishable Reality, the true Atman, to
such a decree that the knower is not moved
even if all the suns are burled into annihilation
and millions of worlds are melted into nothing-
ness.

They are strong iDtellectually, they are
strong physically, spiritually they are also
strong, but you may have read in Hydrostatics
about what is called rzsultant pressure and
whole pressure or total pressure. The total
pressure upon a body may be enormous,
immense, wonderful, but the resultant pressure
may be nil. the resultant pressure may be
nothing. In India, the gigantic forces of
teeming millions do not co-work, do not
co-operate, one force nullifies the other, one
force counterbalances the other and conse¬
quently the resultant national force is nothing.
The superstitious centering of love in outward
ritual and forms, the'blind focussing of feelings
in ceremonies and external bodies, and ignorant •
implicit faith reposed in the reality of appear¬
ances and rigidity of circumstances, has brought
race-hatred, sectarianism, party spirit; and
caste feelings to such a pass that the people

AN APPEAL TO AMEKICANS •

169

cannot put their wills together, and cannot
produce the marvellous dynamic force which
always accrues to a nation from a practical
realization of underlying Unity and Oneness
despite all phenomenal differences. And this
lack of Applied Vedanta among the masses
makes India ,a house divided against itself.
The relations between the numerous parties
are strained.

This is the bane of India, and Rama makes
it no secret that this spirit of division is
encouraged by the British Government. The
‘‘Divide and Conquer” policy of the rulers
widens the gulf between Hindus and Moha¬
mmedans, and again between the different
sects of Hindus. If India is to be saved,
whether spiritually, politically, socially, or in
anyway, it is to be saved through that kind of
culture which removes discord and difference,
which knocks at the head of caste-division,
which deals a death-blow to jealousy and
laziness. These are to be • eradicated from
India if we ^wish that she should stand up,
live aga:in,‘ho]d it^ own against other natiooS
and be a source 'Of* blessiftg to England, to

170 IN WOODS OF GOD-REALIZATION

America^ and to the whole world. If a man
is sick, we can cure him only by giving medicines
which wilt aid and help the inner nature; it
is the inner nature that cures us, the medicines
are simply outside helps. They help nature,
and nature does the caring. Similarly, iflndia is
to be restored, you will have to give her some¬
thing which will strengthen her inner life princi¬
ple, which will invigorate and inspire her
inner nature.

The diseases and difficulties of India have
been laid before you, We shall consider next
the different remedies suggested.

The world thinks, most religions believe,
and many moralists practically advocate that
precepts and rules will cure matters. Never I
Never !! Never 11! Precepts, binding principles,
artificial rules of conduct, and unnatural
morality will never cure matters. Remember
that. ‘Thou shalt not do this' Thou shalt
do that’ will never bring about any reform,
If these rules and these wise counsels could
mend matters, the promised Kingdom of God
would have been established long ago, the
world would have been a heaven and not the

AN APPEAL TO AMERICANS

171

kind of a world it it to-day. These will not cure
matters. Your punishment, your jails and
prisons will not improve matters. The world
will have to realize, whether to-day or to¬
morrow, that it is a great blunder to believe in
the efficacy or vritue of jails and prison houses.
Threats and punishment never prevented sin.
In order effectually to mend matters, you will
have to instil knowledge, culture, living
knowledge, that is wbat is necessafy. People
say, bother us not with subtleties or fine
theories. Bring us no more mere ideas.

O men, what is it that rules you ? What
is it that governs the world ? It is ideas, ideas,
ideas only, it is your inner light, your inner
knowledge .and nothing else that really leads
you. Instead of keeping jails and prisons, you
will have to teach the criminals, instruct them
and acquaint them with the divine laws that
govern the world. It is said, “Knowledge is
virtue.’^ How true! Here is a child. The
child bums his finger by touching fire. Why ?
Because the child does not know that fire
burns. Acquaint the child with the truth that
ire burns, the child will never touch fire again.

IN WOODS OF GOD-REALTZaTIoN

Acquaint the people with the spiritual laws,
bring light to mankind. This is the remedy.
The process may be slow, snail slow, but it
is sure; it may be very slow, sluggish, but it
is the Only remedy, the only effective cure.

There is no other way, Thus, by Christian
ethics punishments and rules or regulations,
India can never be raised. Living knowledge
of the truth is the one thing needful.

Americans and the English have very beauti¬
ful houses. The Indians have very poor houses,
it is true; but to build good, beautiful, magnifi¬
cent palaces in India, and try to make Indians
mere hot-house plants like Europeans, will not
improve matters. In many cases where the
houses are palatial and mansion-like, the
people are not happy; worms, insects,
crawling snakes often live in beautiful tombs.
It may not be the rule, but there are evidences
enough to show that outside splendour and
grandeur brings - no happiness. That is a fact,
If the world does not realize it, the world is to
blame for it. Riches will not improve matters.
Rama.hrings in’Vedanta^ says ;somethhig which
does^nathiuxLO^ ’tv,otybDdy!at.'de^e,,*dof;5i

AN APPEAL TO AMERICANS ' il7G

.fall in with everybody’s expectations; but it is
a fact that lichei will bring' no happiness. If
Europe and America are following riches .and
are taking them to be a source , of happiness,
Europe and America are making a blunder-
Rama does not recommend that Indians should
advance by imitating the errors of America
and Europe, Material prosperity pursued for
its own sake was never achieved by any body.
What nation or person is there that does not
wish to accumulate all the wealth of the earth,
and yet how very few realize this end?
Prosperity always follows in the wake of labour
and love or labour of love. Those nations
advance that consciously or unconsciously
possess more of this master-key to success—
the spirit of practical Vedanta. Ignorant fools
do not cultivate the tree, but are eager to eat
the fruit thereof. Pseudo-polnicians think of
bringing about national rise without striking
the keynote of power, i,e, the spirit of freedom
and love. Now the life principle of every nation
unconsciously, and of India consciously, is
practical Vedanta, the spirit of freedom, justice
and love. This inner nature of India should

174 IN WOODS OF OOD-RBAUZATION

be strengthened. Domestic, social, political,
or religious salvation of every country lies in
Vedanta carried into effect.

There is a special peculiarity of India.
Although the Hindus are not over-religious in
the true sense of the word, their regard or
zeal for religion is so overwhelming that you
cannot popularize and spread anything among
them, be it social, political, or of any character,
except in the name of religion. The Indian
National Congress or any body and organiza¬
tion aiming at social or political reform cannot
touch the masses, and appeal to their souls,
because of not coming through the channel of
religion. That being the case, there can be
no methods more effective to introduce all
kinds of reform in India than the preaching of
practical Vedanta which embraces political,
domestic, intellectual, and moral liberty and
love; which marvellously harmonises freedom
and peace, energy and tranquility, bravery and
love; and all this in the name of religion: all
this in the name of the Scriptures (Shruti,
Upanishads) which lie nearest to the heart of
every Hindu; in the name of the Vedas than

AN APPEAL TO AMERICANS

175

which there is nothing more revered to a HiDdu»
for which every Hindu would most readily lay
down his life. Again, this spirit of freedom
and love is not to be derived fromUpanishads,
the Hindu Bible, by the torturing of texts; it is
there as plain as anything, Vedanta appeals to
the masses simply because it is the teachings
of their Bible, and it appeals to the educated
Hindu because there is no philosophy worth
the name under the Sun which does not
support the Vedantic Monism, and do Science
which does not uphold and advance the cause
of Vedanta or Truth.

Strange to say, Indians, who have the
perennial springs of Vedanta in their Scrip¬
tures, are Suffering like 7^ntalus; they are not
drinking of those springs. Just as for a long
time, the Roman Catholics suffered from dread¬
ful ignorance of the Bible which was the most
beloved thing of all to them in the world,
there are some in India, though not very many,
who possess a thorough knowledge of Vedanta.
But their knowledge is merely theoretical.
They are like a student who knows the rules
of multiplication and division by heart, but

116 IN WOODS OP GOD-RBALIZATION

has not applied those rules to work out a
single sura of multiplication or division;
Most of the Pandits read Vedanta like a sup¬
posed student of Chemistry, who does not
perform a single experiment. Most of the
Sannyasis themselves are no more than dasas
or slaves of Caste instead of being real Swamis
or Masters. No doubt. Professors of Vedanta
you will find plentiful in India, but most of
them are like a University Professor of
Hydrodynamics, who teaches about the ascent
of balloons, the sailing of ships, the principles
of swimming, but has never waded across a
ford. You, people of America may not be
Professors of Hydrostatics, but you are like
the practical boatman who does not presume
or pretend to possess a theoretical knowledge
of the principles of hydrostatics, but uncons¬
ciously wields those principles in practice, far
more than the Professor does. Thus, O
Americans, can you serve the cause of India
and, consequently, of the whole world, by
combining your practical energies with the
spiritual vigour of Vedanta and carrying this
complete culture to .India ? As it is lo-day.

AN APPEAL TO AMERICANS

177

the Swamis and Pandits ih« India'are siogiag
luJIabics to prolong the* lethargic sleep of
tbeir race,

It is suggested that the Planing of Indus¬
trial Colleges and Institutions will mend
matters, Will it ? No ; such institutions may
bring about a temporary relief to some extent,
but the real difficulty, the chief trouble and
greg pain cannot be removed by mere Indus¬
trial Colleges in India. At present, what do
the labourers in India get for their work?
Take a potter, for instance, he makes twenty
pots, plates ; he labours over there for a long
time, and he gets one cent for twenty pots t
One cent for twenty pots 1 Some other
workers get about five cents for their long
day’s labour. There are some high caste
men, who read in the Colleges and Universities,
get Degrees and come out with flying colours,
Masters of Art. What do they receive as
tbeir monthly pay ? Usually not more than
60 rupees, /, twenty dollars‘for one month,
which is two-thirds of a dollar in one day,
about sixty-six cents, but even this is not what
au ordinary Master of Art gets; an ordinary

178 IN WOODS OP OOD-REALIZATION

Master of Art will get about foity-ive cents
in one day. This is the state of affairs in
India. In America, what does your common
labourer get ? Two dollars for one day, Now,
how is it that Indians are so poorly paid ?
They clothe very poorly, eat very poorly, their
houses are very poor, their standard of comfort
is extremely low. Why is it ? Because there
is little capital in the country. Don’t you see ?
The capital is being drained away. If we
start Industrial Colleges in India like the
Carlisle Institute for American Indians and
Tuskegee Institute for Negroes in this country,
that will do some good undoubtedly, it will
teach the people to labour and work ; but to
whose glory, to whose advancement, for whose
benefit shall we take up this labour ? Please
tell. To glorify principally the capitalists of
England, Ail the big concerns of India are
in the hands of English merchants. The
Indian merchants are nominal capitalists; the
capitalists from Europe and America make a
cat's paw of them. In spite of Industrial
Colleges and train!og, what will Indians get ?
Will the people be benefited ? They will be

AN APPEAL TO AMERICANS 179

suffering all the same ; their starvation and their
famine cannot he cured by that, The lasting
remedy is not to come from Industrial Colleges.
Then, what do we need ? Wc need a great many
things, but at present the most immediate need
is to educate the higher castes, as well as lower
castes, train them, instil and drill into them the
spirit of freedom and fill them with unselfish
power of Truth. That is the need. This
perfect culture will embrace technical
education also, but industries alone will not do,
Industries are a secondary matter; something
higher is more urgently wanted.

There ar« forces already working in India,
more or less, on the desirable lines. Lei us
consider their work. Christian missiooarics go
from America and strenuously work there and
try to break down caster so they claim; they
are trying to educate the people, they are
trying to help the Pariahs, the lowest caste.
But let us examine how far their claims are
right. India is grateful to them for doing
something for the lowest caste. They are, to
some extent, educating the lowest caste people
who could never be taught reading and writing

180 IN WOODS OF GOD-REAUZATION

Under any other circumslaoccs. That is noble
work indeed. Mission Colleges and- Schools
are imparting higher education to higher caste
people also. We are thankful to American
Missions for having already done a great deal
in the cause of educating the Indians, but we
ought not to neglect the dark side of the
question, These Christian Missionaries who go
to India draw a salary of 300 rupees a month.
At least, three hundred Indian dollars each
month. They live in rj|ht royal style, like
Nawabs; they domineer over the people, bring
about strife and discord In the Hindu families,
and add another castes to the already existing
numerous caste of India. The Indians that
are converted to Christianity become usually
bitter towards the other Hindus, they do not
mix with Hindus, the Hindus do not mix with
them, the relations are strained, the,, gulf has
become very wide, and there is worse and
worse schism wrought everyday. Girls are
separated from their parents, and wives from
their husbands. The Christians w^al to
replace the dogmas of uneducated . Hindu
masses by the far worse dogmas of the* Churchy

AN'APPBAIkTO AMEfUCANS 181

Christian charity tra as forms itself into the act
of smarting criticism or that of bribing stoall
children to leave tbeir parents, and place
their tender necks under the yoke of Churehlan
superstitions. Under such circumstances your
well-meaning Christianity tends to drive away
and parch up any drop of fdlow-feeling,
sympathy or love that may have survived the
ravages of bitter sectaiianism and party spirit
in the Hindu heart. This is the dark side.
Thus we see that this will not mend matters.
Whereas we are thankful to the Americans for
spending roilliond and millions of dollars with
the very best of intentions. Rama wants to
draw your attention to the fact that the
proposed remedy is not to the point, it only
aggravates matters.

We are thankful to .the English Government
for many reasons. The British Govemrocnf
has done a great deal in breaking down the
original caste in India ; the British Government
did encourage education: in India; British
Goveoment-did §ta« Universities and Colleges
there. It was- owing to the « British rule that
Hmduai<wete':9bie to.;Q(5tematicalIy. read,their

Ig2 IN WOODS OF GOD'REALI21AT10N.

owa ancient Scriptures. This much for the
bright side. Now for the dark side The
British GovemmeDt has drained India
everything. The British Government lus
aiven Indians some smattering of superficial
Vacation, but it has in every way impoverished
India and reduced her to sttch a scale that if
the measures of the Government are not
changed or checked within a very short time,
Hindus will be devoured by poverty and wiped
off from the face of the earth. The Indian
Princes and the Indian nobles, having lost all
their precious jewels and power, arc left mere
carpet-knights with hollow rattling titles and
vain empty names. Again, as to the edu«Uon
imparted in India. In these days, the British
Government has commenced to grudge the
intellectual elevation of the people. When
Rama was in India, there were measures being
taken to stop all higher education among the
masses. Now, what is taught m these
Universities? Dead languages, speculative
philosophy, mathematics, past history, unap¬
plied chemistry and similar studies. In no
Universily, in no College, is taught any living

AN APPEAL TO AMERICANS 183

useful language excepting English. The people
are taught English because they have to* work
under the English officers. The English do
not want to take the trouble of learning the
language of the people ; they want the people
to learn their language in order to serve them.
Mathematics is taught and the standard of
Mathematics in these Universities is much
higher than in America, They are taught
metaphysics, speculative philosophy and
other abstract sciences, but even in the so-
called Arts Colleges, no practical science or
useful arc is taught. Applied Chemistry is
not taught, weaving and mining are not taught
in the Universities, Painting, pottery, mecha¬
nical engineering are not taught. Even those
useful arts are withheld from the people, to
say nothing of armoury. The people are
not allowed to keep any arms in their houses ;
nobody can keep a big knife, even in his
house ; a man who kteps a big knife is put
into jail, no armoury, no discipline is allowed.
From this you know about the unsubstantial
nature of education received by those few
wealthy Hindus or Mohammedans who 4aao

184 IN WOODS GOO-KBAUZATION

spare mooey to pay the exorbitant tuition
fees of Indian Colleges.

There are some, newly started noble sects
in India that are doing splendid work of
reform, but the deep ingrained spirit of hero-
worship and submission to authority makes
them averse to anything that comes not in
the name of their leaders, Every sect of roove-
inent fences itself with names and personalities.
Instead of making the deeds and sayings of
their dead leaders as starcing points for further
progress, they make them the bounding lines
or unsurpassable beriiers and hedges. Thus
do the indigenous bodies of reform in India
begine to stagnate.

Now having laid before you the disease
of India and also having told you by what
methods this disease can be removed, Ratpa
asks you to feel,* feel for India. That is the,
primary thing needfuJ. If you feel for India
and take up tiie matter in. dghl earnest,
everything, can be accomplished. “Where
there’s a.wiU, Jhere’a a way.” Have a will
to do soiSiethingfe« India.,;^Are you. wiUiflg
to do anything fofffindia.to.adyafice fthe good

AN APPEAL TO AMERICANS

185

of humanity?. Will you love India with ail
your heart ? Are you willing to sacrifice your
life for the cause of a down-trodden race ?
Are you willing to devote your time and life
for her cause ? Three hundred millions of
people from a large proportion of the entire
population of the world, Three hundred
millions of people ? We can train them,
educate them, put their energies at their best.
If these three hundred million men begin to
work with you, if they begin to think on the
same lines as you do, if they begin to exercise
their brains on the same points as you do,
will you act be aided and helped ? If the energies
and brains of Indians be spared from being
dissipated in petty chafings and worries, and be
employed in high thoughts and noble feelings,
the vast populatiou of India will produce more
Franklins and IMisons than America. Thus
by utilizing Indian energies, would not the
world be. enriched? To enrich the world, to
help yojir fdlowmea, to help yourselves, feel
for India and try to bring them on the same
level with you. That is to be affected.

186 IN WOODS'OF GOD-REAUZATION

SUGGESTIONS FOR ELEVATING INDIA

Now, how can this be done? Rama has
two suggestions to make. One thing, of
oourse, is to send Americans, right earnest
Americans, Americans the martyrs to Truth,
to India. Do not send to us the refuse of
America, Do not hoist on India the people
who cannot gel any job in America, Send
to India the cream of society, the cream of
America, that is what is needed there. We
want there people who will go and work
among the Pariahs, the lowest caste-ungrateful
labour. These Sudras will not reward you,
they will not even be thankful for your work,
because these people are very poor, illiterate,
ignorant^ they will not even give you clothing
and food in reward for what you do for them.
Why? Because they themselves have no
food and clothing. Needed are men who
will go and work among these people, who
will starve themselves and help these poor ,
men. Will not men from America take up
this work? They must come from noble
America, from sacrificing America. Rama

AN APrtAL'tC^ AMBRtCANS fS7

expects to get a gcic^d lot of pefcJple, a happy
band of 'men who will take up this work,
Rama wants not iliissionarieff of- the type
who go to India, live in rich bungalows and
lord it over the people, who keep lolling
in carriage and rolling in worldly honour
and plenty. These ' people cannot effect
the salvation or the rise of India. Wc
want martyrs in the name of Truth, real
workers, sacrificing men who will be willing
and ready to lie down with the Pariahs upon
the floor and who are content to be clothed
iu rags with them, who are content to starve
with them, who are content to share with them
the tough and hard crusts or half cooked
bread. People of that type we want, who can
forego their sensuous comforts and love to
renounce selfish pleasures. Now you will say
'‘This is hard work.’' and “That is a most
difficult thing to execute." No, call it not a
trying, thankless task. There is enough reward
for it. Personal experience shows that if we
try to raise another man, the other man may
or may not be elevated, but we are surely
uplifted. .Action and reaction are equal and

188 IN WOODS OF OOD-RfiAUZATloN

opposite.' It i$ a fellacy, it is a nonseosical
idea for people to uadectake anything with
ihft 'Uiought of benefiting others. AmericaDs,

, you may or may not have been benefited from
. Rama's lecture ; Rama has been benefited by
them, and that is reward enough, Everybody’s
experience shows it. Take up this cause with
no eye upon reward. Your work will be its own
reward- Unselfish work lays God under debt
and God is bound to pay back with interest.
..AmeriiJjans, go to India, preach and broadcast
Self-Knowledge, Seif-Reiiaacc and Self-Respect
or Vedanta. You heard Rama’s lecture the
other-n^ht on the “Secret, of Success," and it
was proved that the only success-is practical
f Vedanta; and nothing else on the face of
the earth. That is the only secret of
success. Realize that Vedanta, realize that
yourselves, live it and go there; you may not
Open your lips; your very conduct, your deport-
^ meat, your behaviour will educate them, •

The, most;.,important duty which it is wocth
while to impress on the attention of those
who visit India is to evoke in. the Indians an
adventurous spirit. The poor • fellows live

AN AmAL TO AMERICANS

1^9.

not in the broad universe* they live in* poor^ •
little private worlds;of their own creation
(Jiva Srishti). The« hampering caste" system
forbids a Hindu to step outside India,
Visiting foreign lands and even embarking on
board ships is not in keeping with stringent
orthodoxy. At present tbe wealthy Hindus
who pluck courage and heresy enough to put
orthodoxy out of countenance and visit other
countries^ especially England, for receiving
education, spend thousands upon thousands of
ladiao dollars abroad,« and usually return to
India as full fledged barristers or lawyers, and
directly or indirectly, encourage litigation and
spend the money tortured out of poor peasants,
their clients? in. buying brittle glassware,
cutlery, tapestry, or pictures of English make
in addition to some ruinous English spirits and
drinks. What a terrible unproductive consump¬
tion of the capital, robbed from poor starving
labourers whose irritability and htigency grows
worse and worse according as their poverty and
hunger increases,

There is a sore necessity of introducing in
Indian poor castes the adventurous spirit of

190 IN WOODS OF GOM^ALIZATION

the Japanese. Japanese boys come to America
with just enough to pay their steerage passage.
They work in the houses of; American gentle¬
men and also manage to attend different kinds
of schools. After spending a few years this way
in America, they return to Japan with their
pockets brimful of money, and their brains
full of knowledge,

It is worth while teaching Indians to give
up their superstitions, dinging to the soil,; serfs
of the soil they have made tltemselves tbroug^l
caste. They regard it.somewhat sacrilegious to
quit their forefather’s land and thus make
themselves serfs of the soil In order to make
them abreast of time, we should teach them
that they ought to emigrate. People emigrated
from Europe, came here to America, and they
raised America to such a height that Europe is
cast into the shade. If Indians emigrate, come
out to America, come out to other places, India
will have fewer mouths to feed, and the people
who are left behind will bp .better off for that,
and those who emigrate will also fare better.
For .the health of our physical system the blood
must keep, circulating, sOi for the preservadon

AN APPEAL TO AMERICANS 191

of world’s heallh, or any country’s health, the
people must keep moving, circnlating and
mixing with each other frequently, otherwise
stagnation or death will ensue. If we go from
England and America, and try to educate
Hindus, however much we may try, we cannot
evoke the spirit of real freedom, because the
common surroundings, the ordinary environ¬
ments of the people are paralyzing, the sugges¬
tions from all sides keep these people
hypnotized into weakness. In order that the
hypnotism may be shaken off, they should
leave the country ; and when they will visit
America and other countries, even if they learn
no books or trade there, by simply mixing
with the foreign civilized people, they will
unconsciously, willingly or unwillingly, get the
spirit of freedom, theit horizon will be enlarged,
tbeir sphere will expand, their thoughts will be
extended. This is education by itself. To see
other lands is educatipn by itself.

In India, a Hindu or a Mohammedan or
an ordinary native cannot dare approach-aa
Englishnjan or American. He is afraid of a
Whiteman, stands at a respectful distance of

192 • IN WOODS OF GOD-RBAUZATfON

twenty or thirty feet; he shivers and quivers at
the sight of pants and hats. In a railway
carriage, if a European is silting, very seldom
will a native be allowed to sit with him. On
railway stations, Rama saw natives kicked out
and driven out by Englishmen. If a European
sees a native coming towards his house, the
European asks his servant to go and drive him
off, kick him out of the grounds, Thus by
foreigners the Indians. are hypnotized into
weakness, weakness, weakness. And again by
their own caste-fellows, by their own country-
mcni they arc hypnotized into jealousy, fretting,
worry and differences:—he is somebody, 1 am
somebody else, he is my .rival, that is my
enemy. Again in all the Government offices,
the Government, through disposing of the
coveted posts on caste or race considerations,
encourages party spirit, and manages matters
in such a way that each fellow should becomd
inimical to his brother, and regard him a bitter
enemy. The present political and social condi¬
tion of India will not allow the Spirit of
freedom to take root in the people. What is
education ? The goal of education is freedom

AK APPEAL TO.AMBRICANS ,, 193

aod nothing else. If education does not
bring me freedom and independence (Moksha),
fie upon it, away with it, I do not want
it. If education keeps me bound,. I have
no use for it. Thus, in order to evoke in them
true education or freedom,, they should be
helped to change their surroundings. How to
effect this ? One way to effect this is to go
there and teach them.

THE URGENT NEED AND
IMMEDIATE RELIEF
There is a more immcdiale way. 0 Ameri¬
cans, could you not raise, in the name of truth
and justice, in the name of religion and philoso¬
phy, the name of Science and Art, could
you not raise enough money to call some
Graduates of Indian Universities to come over
to America, and hereto receive education in
your industrial, mechanical and other useful
concerns, in your Colleges of Arts, irj your
armouries and other places. Educate them
and teach them weaving and mining and other
useful arts. This is the most direct- way of
elevating India. Raise funds here, bring the
Indians to this country. Those Indians who

194 JN WOODS OF GOD-REAUZATION

receive educatioa Id America, could return to
India and start Industrial Universities. They
know the ways of the poorer classes, they know
the language, habits and customs of the Indians,
and they can do better work among the Indians
as professors than your Americans can. Ameri¬
can Professors can only teach the higher
castes, they can only teach the rich men who
know English already ; the poorer classes, do
not know English. In order to teach the poor
we require people who know their language
and their ways. This is the most efficient
way and the right Toethod to uplift Indians.

Indiads, when they step upon the free
American coast and hnd white ladies and
gentlemen ready to warmly shake hands with
them and receive them as equals, their fears
are fled,.the white man remains no longer a
bugbear, faith in self is restored, the veil of
Maya is rent and the spirit of freedom is
practically secured. Let the Indian Graduates,
trained in America, return as Missionaries of
work and freedom in their motberiaad. Let
the Gospel of Science and Art be preached by
them in liidia. Let the, people pf India be

195

AN APPEAL TO AMERICANS

helped to spread practical Vedanta in their
own country. This way when the wound gets
healed, the scab will fall off of itself. When
the people get the right kind of education, the
ether difficulties will disappear of themselves.
If you could bring some Indian Graduates
over here and educate them and insUuct them
for two or three years, suppose, these people
on their return to India can immediately start
work, can Start business or work useful
for themselves as well as for the poorest

classes. . _ ^ ,

Even one capitalist of America couifl taJte

up this noble work, could stand up and say.

that he is going to lay out say $ 1 , 000 , 000 , to

educate the Graduates of Indian Universities

in America; if one of yon to-day take up

that task, take up that work and deposit even

$ 100,000 we can establish respectable

scholarships for poor Indians to be educated in

America. Rama appeals to the American

Press Rama appeels to each and all ot

Americans,. If any one of you can step

forward and Uke up this duty, you are helping

the cause of the whole world. Supposing the«5

jyo IN WOODS OF G0D.REAL12AXIPN

IS no one among those present here who is so
rich, could you not lay this matter before your
rich friends, before your rich neighbours ?
Could you not-ask your rich frieods to have
an interview with Rama?* If you can’t pay
thousands, could you not contribute your mite?

# You can do that at least.. Raroa does not
- want you to give him anything to eat, Rama

docs not ask you to give him any-clothing.
Perish these lips if they beg anything for
personal interest. This cause is yours just as
much as Rama’s, Rama is Just as much an
American as an Indian, The wide world is
roy home and to do good my religion.. To
Rama, Christ is just as near and dear to the
heart as Krishna ; to Rama Buddha is just as
much his as Shankara. Rama belongs not to
this sect or that. Rama is yours, truth is yours.
In the name of truth, in the name of justice,
in the name of humanity and American
freedoom, you are requested to step forward»
feel for India. What are you willing to do ?
Some can serve with pen, some c^n help with
speech, talk to their friends obout it and make

• speeches on the subject. Some can help with

' A<»PEAL‘ TO AMERICANS '197

manual-labour, some can aid with purse. Now
say, Americans, each and all of you, say, in
what way you are willing to take up this cause.
How will you help 1 The rich should give
money, the heroes should step forward as
teachers to go to India and wbrk among the
people, among even the low caste Pariahs.
Gifted talkers should speak to their rich friends
about this cause. The press must take up
this matter with the pen. All those who are
willing to help and are in right earnest about
the truth, those who love their own self, are
asked to cOme to Rama and give their names
and addresses, writing out with their owq
hand in what way they arc willing to help.
* If they want to deposit any money ; the money
will be placed in the hands of trustees,
Americans, your -own Americans will keep
that money. If you want to come and offer
your services in other ways, do so right away
that we may take a definite arrangement to
commence th6-work systematically.' What are
you willing 'td’tJo ? This is Rama’s appeal to
Americans on behalf *of India: Rama makes
this Appeal -iBlpersonally;' Rama is not

198 IN WOODS OF OOD-REAUZATION

personally concerced with it. RatJia is free
wherever he be ; Rama is not bound in any
way. All the worlds are Rama’s. Rama can
live everywhere. But, see, India is your own
feet, and you are the head. Neglect not the
feet; if the feet are sore and paining, you will
totter down. God cofties to you hungry in the
bodies of Indians, feed Him; God comes to you
Backed in the bodies of Hindus, clothe Him;
God comes to you needy and troubled in the
shape of those people, attend to Him. Those
people are benighted and suffering in order
that you may be blessed with the noble virtues
of charity and love. They are fallen in order
that you may be saved. Thank you stars that
you have got an occasion for exercising your
higher feelings and noble endeavours. Avail
yourselves of the opportunity ; gladly, cheer¬
fully, lend them a helping hand.

America is educating Chinamen, Japanese ;
Red Indians, and Negroes, America is sparing
DO pains even to prevent cruelty to animals.
O'America ! here are the Hindus, your own
flesh and blood. Aryans, most grateful,
affectionate, faithful; neglect them not.

APPEAL TO AMERICANS

199

those who wish to know more
on these lines can correspond with—

RAMA SWAMl
Care of D. Albert Hiller, M. D..

10/11 Suttet, San Francisco, Cal, U.S.A-

This lecture wa^ originally printed > in
America. Then about the end of 1^3, U
published in an issue of. the Indian M> ror
(Calcutta). Again it was issued tn a pamphlet f^m
by the Edward Press, Snkkur, in April, 1905. The

political condition of India has since changed in
certain respects and some of the Swamijis
Btatemenis ate on longer existing.

FACTS AND FIGURES ABOUT INDIA,

The superficial area of India is nearly
two million square miles or equivalent to
that of United States minus Alaska, Oregon
and California.

The population is nearly 300,000 000 or
about one-fifth of the human race. The popu¬
lation is 167 to per square mile for the entire
Empire, including mountain, desert and jungle,
as against 21.4 in the U.S. In the Province of
Bengal, the population is 588 per square mile
Some parts of India have a larger population
to carry chan any other part of the world,

India has every variety of climate. One
portion of its territory records the greatest
rainfall in the world; another, of several
hundred thousand square miles is seldom
watered with a drop of rain,

One hundred and eighteen distinct languages
are spoken in India, and 59 of these languages
are spoken by more thae 100,000 people each.

There are over two million Christians, out

FACTS AND FIGURES ABOUT INDIA 201

of Which more thsn one million are Roman
Catholics, 453,612 belong to the Church of
England; 322,tS6 to ihe orthodox Greek
Church; 220,86.1 are Baptists, 155.455 Lutherans;
53,829 Presbyterians, and 157,847 rtiiscella-
ncoQS Christians. These Christians (somewhat
over 2,000,000) include the foreign populatioii
the British army, the foreign missionaries, etc
Thus the native converts to Christianity do
not make a large figure, and these Christians
who have been proselytized in India come
from the lowest casles—the higher castes are
altogether untouched The British Govern-
ment spends Rs. 4,500,000 annually from the
Indian Treasury on Christian religion.

According to the last census, the enormous
area of 546,224,964 acres is under cultivation,
which is an average of nearly two acres per
capita of population, and more than 22 000,000
acres produce two crops a year. As many
as 175,735,000 people are wholly engaged in
agriculture. 25,468,000 are more or less
employed upon farms, 3,646,000 are engaged
in raising cattle, 14,576.000 in producing
food and drink, 11,220,000 are serving in

V

202 IN WOOr>S OP GOD-RBALIZATION

house-holdSj 12,611,000 are engaged in the
manufacture of textiles, 2,361,000 in the
manufacture of glass, pottery and stoneware,
3,285,000 in manufacturing leather (all of the
latter are Mohammedans ), 4,293,000 in the
manufacture of wood, cane and matting (all
Mohammedans), Millions of Hindus are in
what the census terms “disreputable
occupations’—doing absolutely nothing. If
they cannot do what their fathers did before
them, they will do nothing.

Out of a total of 140.496,135 women in
India only 543.495 are able to read and write—
less than one out of a thousand. The total
number of illiterates recorded is 246,546,175
out of total population of 300,000,000.

Id 1900.a,d, 54,000,000 people were affected
by famine. In the year of the Durbar, 5,000,003
died of starvation. The struggle for life is
beewmiag greater every year. Wages are going
down instead of up, notwithstanding the
increase of industries, the extension of railway
systems,and other sources of wealth and employ¬
ment that are being rapidly developed,

More than 200,000,000 persons in India

FACTS AND FJGDRES ABOUT INDIA 203

are living upon less than i cems a day. More
than 100,000,000 are living on less than 3
cents a day. and more than 50,000,000, upon
less than 1 cent a day. At least two thirds of
the entire population do not have food
enough during any year of their lives to supply
the nourishment demanded by the human
system. In many parts of the country, families
are compelled to live upon the average of a
quarter of an acre of land, and millions more
upon half an acre.

The men and women who work in the '
cotton fields of India are not paid more than
$ 1*50 a month. One cent is paid for a shave.
The postmen employed by the Governroent,
the letter-carriers receive a maximum of only 12
rupees a month which is about $3. Able bodied
and skilled mechanics, masons, carpenters and
blacksmiths get no more than $ 2 or $ 3
a month; and book-keepers, clerks and others
having indoor occupations, from I 4 to 85 per
month. Taking together ail the wage-earners
in India,their compensation per month is
just about as much as the same class receive '
per day in the U. S.

204 IN WOODS OF GOD-RBALIZATION

Nearly two-thirds of the entire population
are dependent upon rainfall for the prosperity
and, one may say, for their lives. If there is
a drought, there is a famine. They cannot
earn enough to lay up food against starvation.
Not lack of food, but lack of money causes
the suffering from famine, as generally when
there is famine in one part of India there is
enough, and sometimes more than enough
food raised in other parts of the country,

The net profit which the British Government
derived in one week from the Railway depart¬
ments was $ 7,500,000 (the week of March
24,1904). This is increasing constantly.

Ninety-five per cent of . the Government
employees in India are natives, and they
receive only 35% of the entire sum paid to
Government employees, 65% goes to the 5%
which is made up of English officials.

The income of all foreign missionary
societies for the year 1903 was $ 20,298,057.
This was used mostly in India.

The beginning of British capitalism in India
•dates from the founding of the East India
Company in India in 1600, with a capital of

FACTS AND nGURRS ABOUT INDIA 205

£70000. East India Company-trade was
abolished in 1833,from which dale unlil 1858 the
Company was simply an administrator of
India ; and in 1858, after the Indian Mutiny,
the Company itself was abolished ; but their
policy remains. Their capital was paid off by
loans which were made into an Indian debt
on which interest is paid from Indian taxes.
The Empire was purchased by the Crown
from the East India Company, but the people
of India paid the purchase money. The Indian
debt, which was £51.000.000 in 1857. rose to
£97,000,000 in 1872. Daring the 40 years of
peace which have succeeded, the Indian debt
has increased continuously. In 1901 it
amounted to £ 200 , 000 . 000 , on which the people
of India have to pay an annual interest charge
of between 3 and 4 million pounds sterling, or
from 15 to20 million dollars. This is equivalent
to a debt of a thousand million dollars, on
which they pay interest annually. What country
in the world could stand any thing like this ?
The Home Charges, remitted annually out of
Indian revenues to Great Britain, have increased
to £16,000,000. The pay of European officers

206 IN WOODS OF 000-S.EALIZATtON

in India, virtually monopolizing all the higher
services, comes to £10,000;000, ($50,000,000).

One half of the net revenues of India, which
are now £44,000,000, flows annually out of
India.

(The above facts are given on the authority
of a book published in England, “The Economic
History of British India" by Sir Romesh Dutt
C.I.E.)

The number of widows in India in 1901 was
5,439,360. There are 255,922 child widows in
the Province of Sengal.

INDIAN WOMANHOOD,

. . Rflnia will now read from a

lecture delivered by an English lady in London
which was printed in an Indian paper Rama
reads from this lecture in order to inform you
about the wrong notions and the false ideas
which are spread in (his country about the way
of living in India. Some people are under the
impression that people who visit India will be
unable to do any work ; they are under the
impression that the caste-system there is
pronounced to such a degree that no American
can roix with them. Many such ideas have
been spread by some people who were never
in touch with the Indians.

What a grand thing it would be to die for
anyone whom we love I 0 what supreme
beatitude I

He alone loves who is willing to lay down
his life for (he object of his love. It is such
love that makes one live and do great services.
It is such love that India needs, it is the love

20$ JN WOODS OF GOO-REALIZATION

of such men and women that India needs who
£0 to her to work..

Many jalse reports are spread by people
who see not life in India, and yet live in India,
just as you take a book, and wrap it in oil-cloth
and submerge it in water, the water is all
around the book, but does not get to the book.
Just so people live in India, but do not mix
with the people of India they do not become
one with the people of India, Here is a
woman who lived India, and lived in the
Indian style and is bearing witness. Rama
wishes Americans to visit India in the .same
way as this woman. If you go as real workers,
you will have to spend no money from your
pocket. People there are supporting millions
of men. The people there are very poor, but
they are very generous.

Rama never saw Indian monks have money
with them. When they visit the streets, it is
always understood that they do so to get aims
to appease their hunger, and every woman in
India takes it as a duly laid upon her by God,
to feed the hungry and administer to the needs
of those who pass by. her house as needy

INDtAN WOMANHOOD

209

persons. Tf a monk should happen to pass the
house of some woman who had nothing in the
house to feed the hungry, Raraa knows what
would happen, Pathetic tears would stream
forth out of her eyes, when she has no food to
give to a poor monk. Any body who walks
in the dress of a needy or hungry person is
looked upon as a monk; a monk does not
mean a Swami. If you are in India and are
hungry, you will be honoured as a monk.
Whoever has no meney with him or no clothes
with him is a monk.

ABOUT WIFEHOOD.

It is very generally represented in America
and England that in India wife is not respected
and loved. This is a very false idea, for in India
the wife is more loved and respected than in this
country. In this country the wife is loved, kissed
and fondled in public, but in private the
wife-is rejected. In India the husband pays
but little or no respect to the wife in public, but

in his heart of hearts he worships her.

In this country the public treatment of the
wife is more important than the private, but
not so in India; the husband pays no attention
to the wife in public, but the husband in his
own way sacrifices everything to the intMCSts
of the wife. He spares no pains to advance
her happiness, but the difference lies in the
fact that the women of India are not educated
to the same degree as the men. But are
women educated in this country to the same
degree as the men? The men in India are
not educated to the same degree as in this
country, nor are the women.

ABOUT WtFEHOOD

211

To-day all lie blame is placed at the door
of the marriage relations in India, but this is
not right, it is not the correct solution of the
problem.

In India a man dare not call the wife as
“my wife”, never can a mar? refer to the wife
as my wife. Such words are looked upon as
obscene, as sacrilegious, as shameful. A man
in India never uses these words and when he
refers to the wife, he addresses her or refers
to her as the mother of my son, he says “My
Krishoa’s mother, or my Rama*s mother, etc.”

“There was a hut where a boy was plague
stricken,”

In India the law is that none of the family
be permitted to come near the one who is
plague stricken.

This grand woman went to the hut of the
plague stricken boy, and by some means
gained entrance. She remained there and
exposed herself in order to nurse the poor boy
who was dying of plague. Finally the mother
of the boy was admitted and (he dear boy was
lying with his head on the feet of his mother
and there he was dying ; that according to the

212 IN WOODS OF GOI>-RBALlZATION

HinHu religion was a death in the Holy land;
just as when a Christian dies with his head on
the feet of Jesus. When an Indian boy dies
with his head at the feet of his mother, he
looks upon that death as very saered.

In this country you worship God as the
Father. “The father who art in Heaven.” Ii
India God is worshipped not as the Father but
as the Mother also. The word mother is the
dearest word in the Indian language ; ‘Mata JL’
the blessed God. the dearest God.

When a Hindu falls sick or is suffering
excruciating pain, at tlie moment of pain the
words that escape him are not ‘My God’. No; it
is ‘Ma.Ma’ which means mother, mother,; this
is what escapes from his lips, this is what
comes from the innermost depths of a Hindu s
heart. Mother is the word which brings the
deepest feeling from the soul of a Hindu.

WISDOM Ky. KNOWLEDGE

(An articxb sent from America for the
Practical Wisdom, POBLiSHRn from
iHE Shanh Ashram, Muttra, U. P. India.)

‘‘Whoever walks a furlong without
sympathy, walks to Ins own funeral drest in
his shroud.’'

Wisdom and learning are not identical. They
are HOC always On speaking terras. Learniug
looks backward to the past. Wisdom looks
forward to the future,

Wisdom has been defined as knowing what
one ought to do next. Virtue is doing it.

Wisdom—without virtue is a weariness of
the flesh. But as volition passes out into action,
and science into art, knowledge into power, so
does wisdom into virtue, And where thought
does not go over into action and precept
into practice, there results mental dyspepsia or
spiritual constipation.

Says an American humorous writer: —

“I've thought and tbougiii on men and things,

Aa my uncle used to say,

214 IN WOODS OF GOD-REALIZATION

If the folks don't worU ihcy pray,by links,
Why, there ain t no use to pray.

If you want something and just dead set,

A pleadlna for it wuh both eyes wet.

And teari won’t bring it; why, you try, sweat,
As my uncle used to say
The power of safe and accurate response
to external conditions is the essential feature
of sanity. Inability to adopt action to need is
a character of insanity, '*Change or Perish is
the grim watchword of Nature. Keep pace
with the advancing time and you can survive
in the Struggle of Life. (India, take note.)

The spirit of all practical wisdom is pointed
out concisely in the simple and saving advice
of Krishna. *‘Thy business is with the Action
only.; never with the reward or merit accruing
from it; let not the fruit of action entangle
tliee; nor be thou the slave of inaction.”

*'Aml live in aciionl Labour 1 Make thine acts
Thy pieiy, casting all seif aside,

Coademniixg gain and merit; equable
In good or evi), equability
Is yoga, is piety !’*

WISDOM VS. KNOWLBDCg

215

Be in the struggle ; That is your duty. A
true hero loves engagement (Action) as ever a
lover wooed'his sweetheart. In case of death ia
the field you bring glory to heaven or Truth
(i.€„ advance the cause of Evolution and
Cosmic Progress by letting ihcfiitesr survive),
and in case of victory also you let the real
Power, Truth {sai) shine through you. In
reality you are the truth* that conquers and
not this body or that which is consumed in the
strife, You are ever victorious. As Truth's self
shine, shine forth as energy of Life.

“Either—being killed-*-

Thou wilt win heavesafety, or—alive
And victoi— Chou wilt reign an earthly king.

Therefore, arise thou son of Tiulh ! brace
Thine arm for conflict, nerve ihy hear: to meet^
As things alike to thee—pleasure or pain,
ProHc or ruin, victory or defeat,

So minded gird thee to the fight, for so
Shalt not sin.'*

The true gauge of success being spiritual
growth, and not outward gain or loss,defeat is
as glorious as victory.

216 WOODS OP GOD-RBALIZAtlOH

'"Shah swar-i-khush ba nvsidan madi %oys
hizan^

0 happy knight you happen to be on the
playground (world,) hit on ! hit cni

A man’s strength of character bears a
direct proportion to the extent of trials be has
undergone.

'“Then welcome .each rebuff
Thj»t lurns earth’s smoothness rough.

Each sting that bids ret sit, nor stand, but go!
Be our joys three part% pain I
Strive and hold cheap the strain ;

L<arn, nor account the pang ; dare, never
grudge the three.

For thence a paradox
Which comforts, while it mccks,

Small life cocceed in that it seems to fatl."

Virtuous Spirit

Waivingall conventionaiity aod superficial
mode of talk, and appealing directly to the
facts of innermost experience, we see that all
wise counsels, rules of conduct, authoritative
obligation, categorical imperatives, “Thou
Shalt DOf’ and “Thou shalt’^ are only vain
efforts to infuse life into one who is not firmly

WISDOM VS. KNOWLEDGE

217

rooted in his own Godhead whether cons¬
ciously or unconsciously; and these are out-side
electric charges which can at best but move
this muscle or that of the dead carcase, being
never capable of inspiring more than a sham life.

“That which is forced is never forcible.’'

Unless Love build the house, they labour
in vain, who build it.

It is true that the “miracles of genius” were
always “miracles of labour ” but what seems
painful labour from the standpoint of others
was always a most enjoyable play in the eyes
of genius herself.

That lifeless, insipid work which 1 (personal
ego) have to ^labour out, I better leave
alone, If the work docs not do itself through
you as an efflux of the soul, your strained
exertion furnishes but a poor excuse for doing
it Such dull prosaic work dragged along by
the credit-hunting small illusory self (egoistic
consciousness) is describeti by Shankar as the
twin of bondage (slavery).

A boy was merrily whistling in the streets,
a policeman objected. The boy replies:—“Do
1 whistle? No,Sir, it whistles itself.”

218 IN WOODS OP GOD-REAUZATTON

Let a Qightingale or dove be perched on the
top of a stately cypress and full delicious notes
begin instantaneously to flow from the bird.
Let the little seif be flung into Infinity. May
you wake up to your oneness with Light and
Love (Sat-Chit-Anand) and immediately the
Central Bliss will commence springing forth
from you in the shape of happy heroic work
and both wisdom and virtue. This is inspired
life, this is your birth-right.

'‘From hknself Qc flies

, Stands in the sun, and with no partial gaze

Views all creationj and he loves it all
And blesses it, and calls it very good”

“It is' difficult to find happiness in one
selP^ says .Schopenhaur, “but it is impossible.
to find it anywhere 'else.”

All great work is done impersonally, in
spite of the prudent little self and not by it.
*^6 Sun simply shines in His native glory as
a disinterested witness—Light, <Salcshi) and
lolthe rivers are unlocked from their snowy
cradles, the breezes begin to dance with glee,all
Nature is in activity, animals wake up, plants
grow on, violets and roses blow on, and even

WISDOM VS. KNOWLEDGE

1[9

ibc sparkling flowers of men, women and
children’s eyes open up at the mere presence
of the Sun’s glorious majesty.

You have simply to shine as the Soul of
AU, as the Source of LigW, as the Spring of
Delight, 0 Blessed One, and energy, life,
activity will naturally begin to radiate from
you. The flower blooms and lo! fragrance
begins to emanate of itself.

If anybody not knowing the art of swimming
perchance fall in a lake he will naturally be
buoyed up by the water, but the losing of calm
and his desperate struggling with the hands and
feet makes him sink helplessly. So, the care
and anxiety-worn struggling litUe ego, is the
drowning sink for man, Says Jalal-i Rumi:
“Heavenly manna was showered daily to
the Israelites in the forest, but some
graceless scoffers out of Moses’ host
Vared to demand the onions.

And manna was lost”

What aches the head, bends the back, or
chokes the chest ? It is walking on the head
instead of on the feet. Let your feet be on the
earth, and your head in air filled with

220 rN WOODS OF COP-RBALIZATION

beavenly joy; invert not the divine ordinance,
put not the earth on your head and call it
sane living, take not the appearances more
seriously than the divine (real) Self.

They say a man threading the forest in
search of musbrooms tramples down oak trees
under his feet. Beloved, why should your
attention be dead set on petty gains and losses
$0 as to miss the Infinite bliss (Atman) ? Is it
(be responsibility-ridden, duty* stricken, honour-
lad eQ(false) ego that really effects any deed ?
A fly on the flanks of a horse might just as
well claim that it makes the horse run and
drives the carriage.

Obtrude not the little I (ahankara) in the
way of the effulgent outburst of ecstatic
Truth. Trust, Trust that power. The true
Self, whose presence caused the poor little
ameaba unconsiously to evolve up to your
human form divine. Law is still present; and
that God being neither asleep nor dead there is
no fear of fall.

Like birds that slumber on the sea

Unconscious where the current runs

We rest on God’s Infinity

WJSDOM VS. KNOWLEDGE

221

Of bhss that circles stars and Sons.

Trouble and pain is another name for feel¬
ing yourself a prisoner and slave of conditions
and circumstances. Shake off all atheistic
delusions of isolation. If the Ruling Self of
outside Nature were different from your own
Inner Self, there were no other course left for
you but to hang down the head and be
damned. But. as it is, thou appearest on the one
hand as garrisoned by enverionments and the
other hand thou appearest as those environ¬
ments and conditions. The looking glass is in
Me (in my hand) and I dm in the looking glass.
I beard a knock—a hard, hard blow—

On ray door and cried I • “Who is U ? Ho !

I wondering waited enirancedi and lo !

How soft and sweet Love whispered low,

“Tis thou that knockest, do you not know
According to the true interpretation of
Musalman Scriptures even the Archdagel
was hurled into perdition by refusmg to
recognise the Supreme (God) in mao (Cf.
Alastu Qalubala, <6c.), and even the rankest
sinner inherits Heaven through realizing God
(Ahd) in man ( Ahmad ).

222 IN WOODS OF OOD-REALIZATIOM

Ibis practical, living perception of ‘‘ruy
Self as the Self of all others” is the true saving
Islam {Shardha, FaUh). To call it mere belief
is doing no justice to it; It is ihe ^‘Ultimate
Science"' (oi Vedant jnanam); It is the art of
arts. It is the Law of Laws.

What is the final test of truth ? We can
trust our life to it. And yes. you can safely
trust your life and all to the fact underlying
all phenomena : “I and my Father are one ”
“That Thou art ” (Tai tvam-asi).

The Law of gravity might even deceive
your trust in it. but the Law of Spiritual Unity
never deceives. Just/ee/ this unity and you
find all creation behaving as your own body.
Gold and Silver cannot insure your life, 0
deluded immortkl; Thou it is that lends life to
Prana, lustre to gold and silver and light to
the Sun and stars.

People do not make rapid progress because
the load of outside opinions, conventionality
and things silting like the mighty Himalayas
on their back (nay, breas^ does hardly let a
single step be advanced. Free yourself of un¬
healthy ‘ superstition or limitation. In your

WISDOM VS. KNOWLEDGE

223

mind must be a liquid which will dissolve the
world whenever it is dropped io it. The universal
solvent of JnanQm (self-knowledge) will hold
the universe in solution and yet he as translu¬
cent as ever. Provided you think aright, the
Heavens falling or the Earth gaping, will be
music to you to march by. No foe can ever
see you or you, him. Vou,cannot so much as
even think of him..

In music the different notes may succeed and
precede each other in regular sequence { as
cause and effccC) ?; the symphony,is not under¬
stood by examination, and comparison of the
notes alone; but by^ experience of their relation
to the deepest feeling which inspired the piece,
which sustains the piece, \vhich. is-the origin of
the piece, and the result of i^s performance, the
alpha and omega.

So is not Nature explained by dwelling on
its surface—laws—laws and, superficial causation
but by ‘*its becoming bo.dy O.f Man.’’ Unless
you feel all, you know not all. Diving into
the reality -soupding belovy the names and
forms, passing free, free into woods and fields,
mountains and rivers, into day and o^ht,

224 IN WOODS OF GOD-RBALIZATION

clouds andsUfs, passing free, free into men
and women, aDimals and angels, as the self of
each and all—This, this is life, this is Self-
Knowledge. this is practical Wisdom.

The whole world is bound to co-work with
one who feels himself one with the whole
world,

Jnana ( Fundamental Truth, ‘‘That thou
art**) being realized on the Causal plane or
penetrating the core of the heart becomes over¬
whelming love, universal oneness, feeling and
living ecstasy which like the effulgent Sun
although it asks nothing, begs ho reward, seeks
no fruit (being perfect renunciation on the
mental plane) yet must spontaneously pour
itself out as wonderful energy and powerful
action on the physical plane.

Hence, realized Jnana—Renunciation in
Action through Love I

Within the temple of my heart
The light of love its glory sheds.

Despite the .seeming pricly thorns
The Flower of Love free fragrance spreads-
Perennial springs of hobbling joy
With radiant sparkling splendour flow.

WISDOM VS. KNOWLEDGB

Intoxicating melodies

On wings of heavenly zephyrs blow.

Yea t Peace and bliss and harmony—

Bliss, oh how divine 1

A flood of rolling symphony

Supreme is mine

Free birds of golden plumage sing

Blithe songs of joy and praise.

Sweet children of the blushing spring
Deep notes of welcome raise.

The roseate hues of nascent morn
The meadows, lakes and hills adorn.
The nimbus of perpetual grace
Cool showers of nectar softly rains*
The rainbow arch of charming colcpur
With smiles the vast horizon paints
The tiny pearls of dewdropa bright
Lo 1 in their hearts the San contain.
0 Joy I the Sun of love and light,
The nevet-sctting Sun of life.

Am I, am I
That darling dear
Came near arid near—

Smiling, glancing,

Singing and dancing.

226 IN WOODS OF GOD-RBALIZATION

I bowed with aigh
He didn't reply>

I prayed and knelt
He went and left.

“Why cut me so ?

Pray stay, don’t go.”

He answered slow;

“No, no.'’

I entreated hard
‘‘Pray, by me, Lord.”

He answered;

“Wouldst thoa sit by tne ?

Then do please sit by thee.’’

7:—Do unto me speak

Jle “Enter the inner silence deep.'’

/:—“I would clasp thee and kiss,

Dear, grant me but this.”

He “Wilt thou clasp theyself And kiss,
lam one with thee, why miss
My form divine
I, an image of thine.

Why seek the form
O source of charm ?

With thee I lie
You outward fly.

WISDOM VS. KNOWLEDGE

227

Don*t slight me
Nor outward go.

I have no scruple of change, nor fear of death.
Nor was I ever bora
Nor had I parents.

I am Existence AbsoVote, Knowledge
Absolute* Bliss Absolute.

I am That, I am That.

I cause no misery, noc am I miserable.

I have no enemy, nor am 1 enemy.

1 am Existence Absolute, Knowledge Absolute,
Bliss Absolute.

'1 am That, I am That.

I am without form, without limit.

Beyond space, beyond time,

I am in every thing, every thing is in me,

I am the bliss of the universe.

Everywhere am I.

I am Existence Absolute, Knowledge Absolute,
Bliss Absolute.

I am That, I am That.

I am without body or changes of the body.

I am neither senses, nor object of tbe senses.

I am Existence Absolute, Knowledge Absolute,
Bliss Absolute.

228

IN "WOOD^ OF OOtJ-RBALlZATiON

I am That, I am That,
lam That, I am That.

1 am neither sin nor worship,

NortempJe, nor virtue,

' Nor pilgrimage, nor books.

I am existence Absolute, Knowledge Absolute,
Bliss Absolute.

T am That* I am That*

•»

)

CENTRAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL UBRARY

NEW DELHF

i Cal] No,—

__Tlrtha, Svaud.

Titles ^ ^ God-Realiz^ti^n

Vol. 7

rDa«ofR«.«

J tf'WDWB.i'S

i.!si